Becca Pollard, Buckeye Environmental Network
On March 13, 2020, environmental groups celebrated a major victory when a U.S. District Judge Michael Watson ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) must redo the Environmental Assessment which, according to the agencies, justified a Finding Of No Significant Impact for leasing up to 40,000 acres of public lands in Wayne National Forest(WNF) for fracking.
The decision followed a four-year fight with Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Heartwood, Ohio Environmental Council, and Sierra Club taking up the legal battle, and numerous grassroots groups and individuals all over Ohio and beyond, doing everything from petition drives and letter-writing campaigns, to bioblitzes, to protesting outside of Wayne National Forest Headquarters in Athens
In April, 2024 BLM and USFS released a plan, which was, according to a CBD press release, “nearly identical to the fracking plan blocked in 2020….”
At a 2024 Wayne National Forest Virtual Public Hearing on the plan, long-time Athens County activist Roxanne Groff reminded WNF staff and other listeners that the court had ruled that the agencies must take a hard look at the impacts of fracking in Wayne National Forest. “So far, what I’ve read leads me to believe you’ve not really done that, since you’re still using the 2006 planning document that was outdated when you started the process in 2012.”
Groff went on to recount the Forest Plan Revision process that WNF began in 2018, and then abandoned, after members of the public spent a year and a half attending meetings and providing input. She then listed examples of recent scientific findings and data from Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) that the agencies failed to consider.
The oil and gas industry has promised that fracking would bring economic prosperity to the area, but according to Ohio River Valley Institute’s report Frackallachia update 2025, this has not panned out:
Between 2008, prior to the start of the Appalachian natural gas boom, and 2023, GDP in the 30 principal gas-producing counties of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia grew nearly 13% faster than that of the nation. But the growth in GDP masked the dismal real-world economy in the region:
● The number of jobs based in Frackalachian counties fell by one percent even as it grew 14% nationally.
● Incomes in the Appalachian natural gas counties grew at a rate that was only three-quarters that of national income growth.
● The Appalachian natural gas counties’ population declined by 3% while the nation’s population grew by 10%.
Click here to view the full report
Not only has this industry failed to deliver economically, but since the inception of the fracking boom in the area, Appalachian Ohio has suffered more than its share of gas and oil industry incidents, and the southeastern corner of the state where the Marietta Unit of Wayne National Forest, which contains most of the parcels slated for auction, has seen some of the worst, such as the 2014 Statoil Well Pad fire in Monroe County, the 2018 XTO Energy well pad explosion and gas leak in Belmont County, the 2019 Enbridge Pipeline explosion in Noble County, which injured one child and one adult and damaged three homes, and the 2021 orphan well crude oil leak at Veto Lake in Washington County. In August of this year an explosion at an orphan well killed one of the workers who was attempting to cap it, and injured five others.
The Marietta Unit, known for its hiking and mountain biking trails, provides critical habitat for Federally endangered species like the Indiana bat. Evidence of black bear, which is a state endangered species, has recently been found at Archers Fork, just a few miles southwest of some of the parcels slated for auction.
ODNR Reported Finding Bear Tracks
On December 3, The Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Heartwood, Ohio Environmental Council, and the Sierra Club filed a new lawsuit, stating:
The Court’s previous order held that Defendants failed to take NEPA’s required “hard look” at the impacts of fracking in the Wayne. But Defendants’ FSEA does not remedy the hard look failures identified by the Court and therefore was not completed “in accordance with the Court’s previous Opinion and Order.”
Earlier this week the Bureau of Land Management announced a Scoping Period for 41 parcels that the agency plans to include in its September 2026 lease sale. The deadline to submit comments is 5pm Eastern Standard Time on January 15, 2026. Comments can be submitted on the BLM planning website:
Click HERE to Submit a comment!
Be sure to click “Participate Now” in order to get to the comment box!
This comment period is your opportunity to voice your concerns about direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts. If you’re familiar with the area, be sure to share your personal experience and what you have observed there. If you haven’t visited the area, your voice still matters. Harms to this area impact the air, land, and water that we all rely on. The climate impacts of both fracking and forest degradation affect us all.