An unidentified natural gas driller filed four applications Friday that would collectively open more than 8,300 more acres of Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in eastern Ohio.
If granted, they would make the wildlife area home to the biggest fracking operation under publicly owned land in Ohio.
This request follows a January decision from the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission to open about 4,400 acres of Egypt Valley to oil and gas development. That acreage is currently up for competitive bidding.
Egypt Valley comprises about 18,000 acres of rolling hills around Piedmont Lake, in Guernsey and Belmont counties. It’s used for hunting and fishing, and it’s among the bigger preserves the state owns.
While there’s no guarantee how the commission will rule on the application, its gubernatorially appointed members have proven welcoming to industry’s requests and unfazed by near-unanimous opposition in public comments and meetings since the panel formed in earnest in 2024.
Currently, the largest project approved by the commission opened 6,600 acres of Salt Fork State Park, not far from Egypt Valley, to Infinity Natural Resources of West Virginia. The company agreed to pay a $58 million signing bonus and 20% of future production revenue.
At least 30% of revenue from any lease agreement must flow back into the state park or wildlife area at issue. The rest goes to Ohio’s general revenue fund.
The commission has also voted to open 1,460 acres of Jockey Hollow Wildlife Area to fracking, plus smaller tracts of land at Leesville, Valley Run, Keen, and Zepernick wildlife areas, all leased to out-of-state energy companies. Wildlife preserves are similar to state parks, but they’re more focused on conservation than recreation.
Egypt Valley sits on reclaimed land from strip mining, a coal extraction technique, during the mid- to late-20th century. The state has acquired the land via funds from the Wildlife Restoration Act, which uses tax money from guns and bullets to buy land for conservation purposes. The space is popular among hunters, and its ponds are stocked with bass, catfish, and bluegills, according to Belmont County.
The current public lands leasing process began in 2011, when statehouse Republicans launched an effort to allow gas companies to tap into gas reserves below certain state lands. However, political resistance under the gubernatorial administrations of John Kasich and Mike DeWine, both Republicans, effectively blocked any leasing efforts.
The legislature responded with legislation to forcibly revive the program in 2022, while also declaring that natural gas – the common term for methane, a climate-change-causing atmospheric heat-trapper – is a form of “green energy.”
Environmentalists like Save Ohio Parks, an advocacy organization, objected to the commission’s decision earlier this year on Egypt Valley. Rep. Tristan Rader, a Lakewood Democrat in the Ohio House, has introduced long-shot legislation that would ban all fracking on public lands. He called the practice exploitative, endangering wildlife and peaceful recreation and effectively stealing land from future generations.
“I think it was a big mistake to allow for these types of practices in the first place,” he said.
The Egypt Valley application opens a public comment period until April 27. From there, the commission will make a decision of whether to open the land for development. If they do so, it goes out for a public bidding process.