TAKE ACTION!
Save Ohio Parks Saturdays
Our Ohio state parks, forests, wildlife areas, and other public lands are under attack.
For over a decade, the oil and gas industry has had its eyes on our most treasured spaces. Now they are about to get their wish. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is now taking applications to extract from our taxpayer-supported public lands, which are supposed to be protected for the benefit of all Ohioans, not the profits of a polluting and destructive industry.
Sadly, most Ohioans don’t know this is happening. We have only a few weeks to get comments in to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission regarding each parcel of public land nominated for extraction. People need to know, and we need your help to tell them.
Every Saturday — or whatever day of the week works for you — visit one of our Ohio state parks, or visit any city or county park in your area. Stand at the entrance and let people know our state public lands are under attack. Here is a flier you can download and make copies of to hand out.
The state legislature and agencies are bending to the wishes of the oil industry. It’s up to us to let Ohio citizens know they are about to lose our most precious public lands so we can fight back.
Click Join Us to receive more information, and help us Save Ohio Parks!
Submit your comment on parcels of public land targeted for oil and gas extraction (See Nominations for more)
To the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission,
I am very concerned to learn that you are allowing oil and gas corporations to frack and extract from our public lands in Ohio, especially our state parks, forests, and wildlife areas.
Our state parks are our most treasured spaces in Ohio. We, the people of Ohio, pay to protect them so they can be used for our benefit, not the profits of a polluting and extractive industry.
[Consider telling a personal story here about what Ohio state parks and other Ohio public lands mean to you. Ohio public lands include state parks, forests, and wildlife areas, as well as historical sites, college and university campuses, highways and rest stops, even correctional institutions.]
Contrary to the claims of the oil and gas industry, fracking will irrevocably harm our state parks and other public lands. Ohioans use our state parks for hiking, camping, birdwatching, fishing, and hunting. There is no way that injecting millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the ground and flaring methane into the sky near or in our state parks and public lands will not harm them.
Fracking requires millions of gallons of fresh water that is laced with toxic chemicals, including PFAS forever chemicals. The waste water that comes back up is radioactive and can never be used again. Where will that water come from? The water in our parks and public lands should be protected.
Fracking requires large pads of noisy and polluting machinery. It requires pipelines, which in turn requires removal of trees. This should not be allowed in or near our public lands.
Fracking rigs regularly flare methane into the sky, a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide. At a time when the world’s climate scientists say we have less than a decade to cut carbon pollution in half, the last thing we should do is put more methane into the atmosphere.
I adamantly oppose fracking in Ohio state parks and public lands. Please just say NO to fracking.