WAYNE NATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN REVISION ESCALATED
On February 13, 2018, the USFS announced that it would be revising the Wayne National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (“Plan”). Heartwood and other groups sued the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in 2017 over the auctioning of mineral rights under the forest and tiering that leasing decision-making to the outdated Plan.
Pointing to the fact that the outdated Plan does not contemplate the impacts to land, wildlife and water resources caused by high volume hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), Heartwood and our litigation partners were told throughout the administrative process that the FP was adequate. Clearly, that is not the case and the FS/BLM is now scrambling in response to the ongoing litigation.
In the last year, the FS/BLM has opened 40,000 acres of the Wayne to fracking and has already leased 2,300 acres to fracking companies with more auctions in the works.
The first meeting in the planning process that is expected to take 2-3 years is scheduled for March 21, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. At least four other meetings are also being scheduled with dates to be announced. You can find campaign updates on the website of Heartwood member group Keep Wayne Wild! You can also sign up for email updates directly through the Wayne National Forest by visiting the following link:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/wayne/landmanagement/planning/?cid=fsm9_005991
