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This letter was sent to us and is from our friends at Save Parks Ohio. Please take action!

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Subject: A whirlwind few days -- and an important request

Greetings to all friends of Ohio state parks and public lands,

A lot has gone on in the past few days, and we wanted to give you a brief update-- and please scroll down because we have an important request.

As you have no doubt seen by now, Jake Zuckerman of the Cleveland Plain Dealer broke a story showing that many of the comments submitted to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission in favor of fracking our state parks and wildlife areas were not written by the people whose names were on the comments.

That story led House Minority Leader Allison Russo to call on ODNR Director Mary Mertz to delay any decisions about fracking our state parks and public lands until they can investigate what is happening with these comments.

A few hours later, Attorney General Dave Yost announced that his office had sent subpoenas to the organization at the heart of the suspicious comments.

Save Ohio Parks was featured and quoted in all three stories, and there may be more to come. We will have more information at our campaign meeting on Friday.

Right now our attention is on the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting on Monday, September 18 -- and you can help.  

Please write to the commissioners and ask them to delay any decisions on fracking our state parks and wildlife areas.

By statute, the commission must meet within 120 days of the first lease nominations submitted, which happened on May 30. But they don't have to make a decision then. They can discuss the nominations, and meet again to decide within another 60 days.  

This is what we want them to do. Please tell the commissioners that in light of all the questions surrounding hundreds of comments submitted to the commission, they should not make any decisions on Monday but instead wait for an investigation.

Here is a sample letter, but please personalize this for the most impact:

Dear Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission,

My name is [your name], and I am a [state whatever you want to say about who you are] in [your location].  [Say something about your relationship with Ohio state parks - any that you have visited and that you enjoy camping, hiking, etc there].

No doubt you have seen the investigation by the Cleveland Plain Dealer that found many comments submitted to you regarding fracking our Ohio state parks and wildlife areas were not written by the people whose name is on them. Rep. Allison Russo is calling on you to delay any decisions on lease nominations, and Attorney General David Yost has opened an investigation.

I would like to respectfully request that you hold off on any decisions at your meeting on Monday, September 18, until some of the questions surrounding the public comments can be resolved. It is critical that the public commenting process be fair and legitimate. That can't happen if many comments contain names of people who did not submit them, or who did not understand they were submitting a public comment about fracking in our state parks when they provided their name.

In order for this process to work, all sides have to follow the rules. It appears at least some players have not, and we need to allow the investigation time to get to the bottom of this before making any decisions that will forever alter the fate of our Ohio state parks, wildlife areas, and other public lands.

Thank you,

[Your name]

[Your city, state, zip]

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Here is the email list that you can send this letter to:

Commission.Clerk@oglmc.ohio.gov,
mwarnock@oneenergyllc.com,
mwise@mcdonaldhopkins.com,
buehrer@carpenterlipps.com,
jim.mcgregor99@gmail.com,
ryan.richardson@dnr.ohio.gov,
mary.mertz@dnr.ohio.gov,

nathan.moffitt@dnr.ohio.gov

I am not sending this out as a form letter action alert through Action Network. This would be most powerful coming directly from your email address.  

Thank you so much, and hope to see you for the next commission meeting on Monday, September 18, at 9:30 a.m. at 2045 Morse Road in Columbus. More info here: bit.ly/oglmc9-18

Sincerely,

Save Ohio Parks Steering Committee

Cathy Cowan Becker, Roxanne Groff, Loraine McCosker, Jenny Morgan, Randi Pokladnik, Melinda Zemper

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