Don't Frack Our National Forests

The federal government is moving to open Ohio’s only national forest to fracking — and the Bureau of Land Management can still stop it.

BLM has advanced a plan to auction off more than 2,800 acres of federal minerals beneath Wayne National Forest for oil and gas development. If this lease sale moves forward, fossil fuel companies could gain legal rights that bring fracking one step closer to forests, streams, wildlife habitat, and communities in southeastern Ohio.

Wayne National Forest is public land. It belongs to all of us — not oil and gas executives looking for another place to drill. Turning a national forest into a fracking zone would mean more industrial traffic, more noise, more pollution risk, and more damage to a landscape people rely on for clean water, recreation, wildlife, and peace.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Cancel the September 2026 Wayne National Forest oil and gas lease sale and protect our public lands from fracking.

The lease sale is still facing public protest, and BLM has the authority to listen to the public, reconsider its decision, withdraw these parcels, and require stronger environmental review before any drilling rights are handed over.

Fracking is not just another use of public land. It can fragment habitat, threaten endangered species, increase truck traffic, strain rural roads, and expose nearby communities to risks they never asked to bear. Once leases are sold, stopping the damage becomes much harder. That is why BLM must act before these public lands are locked into fossil fuel development.

Our national forests should be protected for future generations, not auctioned off parcel by parcel to the highest bidder. At a time when climate disasters are worsening and communities are demanding cleaner energy, opening public forests to more oil and gas development is exactly the wrong direction.

Add your name now and demand the Bureau of Land Management cancel this lease sale before Ohio’s only national forest is handed over for fracking.

The petition to the Bureau of Land Management reads:

"Cancel the September 2026 oil and gas lease sale in Wayne National Forest. Withdraw the 41 nominated parcels from auction, conduct a full and updated environmental review, and protect Ohio’s only national forest from fracking and fossil fuel development."