Submit a comment to protest fracking 41 parcels of Wayne National Forest

Fracking in the Wayne National Forest is back — again. And Ohio’s only national forest could use your help.

Last time we emailed you about this, it was to comment on the Bureau of Land Management’s Supplemental Environmental Assessment, which found no significant impact in fracking Wayne National Forest.

Now the BLM is moving forward with actually fracking 41 parcels in the Marietta Unit of Wayne National Forest in Washington and Monroe counties, with bidding on these leases scheduled for September 15.

How to protest

The good news is, the BLM is taking letters to protest fracking these 41 parcels of Wayne National Forest. The bad news is, they make it exceedingly difficult — but not impossible — to file a protest.

Instructions for protesting the BLM’s decision to offer these lands for fracking start on Page 9 of a document called “2026.07.17_September 2026 Lease Sale Notice and Protest Instructions,” which can be found here under “September 2026 Eastern States Lease Sale Notice and Final DNA and Attachments.”

Here are the key points:

• Letters must be snail mailed to the BLM Eastern States State Office, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041. Comments sent by email will be dismissed.
• Letters must be received before 4 p.m. on August 17, 2026 — so our advice is to get a letter in the mail as soon as possible, but no later than August 3. Late protests will be dismissed.
• The protest must include a statement of reasons to support the protest. Letters filed without a statement of reasons will be dismissed.
• The protest must state the interest of the protesting party, including name and address.
• The protest must reference the specific parcel number(s) that are being protested.
• The protest document must be signed. Unsigned protests will be dismissed.
• All protest correspondence will be made publicly available.

These are a LOT of requirements to follow. To make this a little easier, we have written a sample comment that you can download, edit, print, and mail (don’t forget a stamp).

Find our sample comment with instructions for what you need to do

Clicking on our sample comment will get you to a Google doc. From there, click on File –> Download –> Microsoft Word. That will download a Microsoft Word version of the letter onto your computer.

From there you can open the letter and edit it by following the instructions highlighted in yellow.

• At the top, fill in your name and complete address
• Add a sentence or two about why you care about Wayne National Forest.
• At the end, erase the instruction in yellow that shows you where to sign. Print the letter, then sign at the end.
• Put the letter into an envelope and address it to the BLM Eastern States State Office listed at the top. Don’t forget a stamp.
• Put the letter into your outgoing mail or take it to a post office to mail. If you are running short on time, you can send it by priority mail.

We know this is a lot to ask — once there are actual parcels of land nominated for fracking, the BLM doesn’t seem to want people to comment. Send in your comments anyway.

We want to thank Buckeye Environmental Network for creating a comment guide and interactive map showing which species have been observed in Wayne National Forest.

And we want to thank YOU for going to the trouble to file a comment, even when they make it this difficult.