Mark Gavin Sr. is campaigns director at Save Ohio Parks, a statewide citizens group protecting Ohio’s public lands from fracking.
In his recent guest column, Ohio Oil and Gas Association President Rob Brundrett says Ohioans deserve a debate grounded in facts, science and respectful conversation.
On that, Save Ohio Parks certainly agrees. So, let’s have that conversation, starting with the facts his column left out.
First, Save Ohio Parks does not condone personal attacks on anyone, including members of the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission. But Brundrett’s column neglects to acknowledge that things start to get personal when people are fighting for their homes, clean water and clean air.
The frustration on display at these meetings is a product of fear, anger and grief. It was built on 10,000 ignored comments, an unreachable commission and being treated like criminals at meetings that tend to adjourn before they reach half an hour in duration.
The facts don’t lie.
Check any fracking nomination at a state park or wildlife area on the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission site and you will find the comments are overwhelmingly against fracking our public lands. Out of thousands of comments, barely a dozen favor it.
Fighting for the nation’s best park system
The commission approved the leases anyway. It has approved nomination after nomination. If a public process always produces the same results no matter what the public says, it has stopped being a process and has become a ceremony. People noticed, and they’re understandably upset.
In 2025, the parks budget was $52 million. The 2026 state budget cut that in half and told the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to pull the other $26 million from the Oil and Gas Fund, where fracking lease payments go.
Money that once paid for special improvement projects now covers basic operations, staff and maintenance. Ohio could fund its parks by asking wealthy residents to pay their fair share. Instead, this Legislature cut their taxes with the flat tax and promised to make up the difference by fracking our public lands.
He also mentions that Ohio was recently named the best state park system in America.
We are proud of that too. Our parks can still be the best in the nation without drilling under them.
On the contrary, fracking our parks degrades them by industrializing the area around them, creating air, light and noise pollution, and converting tens of millions of gallons of fresh water into toxic and radioactive waste.
I agree with Rob on something: These resources belong to all Ohioans. Public lands are public assets. Outdoor recreation generated $20 billion in Ohio in 2024. That is due in large part to our renowned parks. Fracking them puts that industry, and our recreation, at risk.
So why are the companies that nominate them for fracking kept secret until a bid is awarded?
Why does this commission meet in the middle of the workday in Columbus at the Department of Public Safety office, in a room flanked by Ohio State Highway Patrol officers? If commissioners cared about what the most affected Ohioans thought about these nominations, they would hold their meetings in places like Guernsey County, where folks who live around Salt Fork State Park deal with truck traffic, around-the-clock noise and light pollution, and explosions.
The oil and gas industry has every right to make its case. So do the thousands of Ohioans who have made theirs, respectfully and persistently, for three years. Only one side of this debate has been ignored.
So here is our idea: Hold the next commission hearing in Guernsey County, Belmont County or Columbiana County.
Hold it in the evening, when working people can attend. Let them give public testimony. Let commissioners sit with the Ohioans whose homes are on the line, and let the public judge for itself who is bringing facts to this conversation.
Our parks belong to all of us. We will keep showing up for Ohio. We hope the commissioners will at some point as well.
Mark Gavin Sr. is campaigns director at Save Ohio Parks, a statewide citizens group protecting Ohio’s public lands from fracking, and owner of On The Mark Advocacy & Campaigns, where he has led issue and candidate campaigns and voter outreach efforts across the country. Visit SaveOhioParks.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio has nation’s best park system. We’re angry fracking will change that | Opinion
Reporting by Mark Gavin, Sr., Guest Columnist / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mark Gavin, Sr., Guest Columnist | USA TODAY Network
