News

Energy In Depth has met with many landowners who want to be able to lease their land for development in and around the Wayne National Forest. We’d like to highlight the testimony of Rebecca Clutter – who serves on the board of National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) Appalachia and is the founder of Landowners for Energy Access and Safe Exploration (LEASE) – to share the story of her experience at the Wayne National Forest Collaborative Cadre meeting. Press coverage of the meeting was recently highlighted in an article entitled, “Local Residents, Students Occupy Forest Service Meeting Over Fracking Concerns”. (emphasis added)

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Testimony of Rebecca Clutter

On Sept 10, 2016 the Wayne National Forest staff hosted a Collaborative Cadre meeting of interested parties at Ohio University. The goal of this meeting was to “put citizen engagement and collaboration at the forefront of what we do on the Wayne National Forest” and to “improve relationships with a broad range of our neighbors” who represent “business, education, recreation, natural resources, and industry” from all three ranger districts.

Noting that the participants were heavily weighted to groups surrounding the Athens Ranger Station with little to no actual “neighbors” or landowners, and barely any representation from Monroe County, I asked to be included representing land and mineral owners from Monroe County, LEASE and NARO. Initially I was not permitted to attended, but eventually the US Forest Service allowed room for me and one other landowner.

We drove down to the meeting in Athens, Ohio on a Saturday, and respectfully participated in the cadre meeting. I chose to attend the oil and gas group. Initially the organization of the meeting was productive and respectful and was equally represented between the various factions.  I found the distribution to be very fair and looked forward to the exchange of ideas on how, within existing law and Forest policy, we could come together on at least a few things moving forward.

However, that all changed when a group of fringe environmental extremists protesting outside the doors of our work session decided to “occupy” the meeting. With open doors, the Forest Service allowed them to join our group.  This is appalling, as it took us weeks to have...