Ohio’s public lands need us now more than ever. After twelve years of fighting off fracking threats to Ohio’s parks — including two lawsuits the OEC is still waging — the oil and gas industry’s push to use our natural resources for profits has reached a new level. We need you to speak up to protect Ohio’s state parks and public lands from oil and gas leasing.
The OEC will continue to update our members and send alerts for nominations of major state public lands.
Reference Materials for Future Nominations
The public has 45 days to comment on each nomination after it is announced. A detailed OEC technical comment for the original Salt Fork nomination is available to view, along with a more general example comment from an Ohio citizen. We have pulled together science and data to help the public make the case for protecting the places we love. However, your comment can include as much or as little data as you want. Share why Salt Fork matters to you!
While resubmitting public comments for each leasing nomination may feel redundant, it is one of the most impactful ways that we can protect our parks in this new nomination and leasing process. Since this is a brand new process, we don’t know how the committee will evaluate multiple nominations for the same area. It is possible that they could just choose one nomination, and therefore only comments from that nomination, to be evaluated. The fossil fuel industry is dedicating time and resources to each nomination, so we must as well if we want to save our parks.
Submit your comments to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission by the stated dates using the official portal by and selecting the appropriate nomination numbers.
Comments from individual Ohioans that showcase why our public lands matter to YOU are an especially persuasive way to impact the commission’s decision.
Suggested topics to include your comment:
- Public health impacts
- Damage to quality outdoor recreation
- Include any of your personal recreational experiences (hiking, boating, camping, swimming, climbing, running, bird watching, etc.) at Salt Fork that would be impacted!
- Toxic air pollution, light pollution, noise pollution, and climate pollution from fracking.
Additional Nominations:
To stay informed of all land nominations, please register for updates from ODNR Oil & Gas Commission (send an email to Commission.Clerk@oglmc.ohio.gov) or join Save Ohio Parks email list.
