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Drilling Continues! We Need You for Forest Watch Action!By Cathy Pedler, Forest Watch Coordinator cpedler@alleghenydefense.org It's spring! In the Allegheny National Forest this means oil and gas drillers will continue drilling thousands more oil and gas wells, and cut hundreds of miles of new roads into an already heavily fragmented forest. We need your help! Because of a very bad decision last December in the Federal District Court of Western Pennsylvania (Minard Run Oil Company et al. v. USFS et al.), which enjoined a settlement reached in our lawsuit (FSEEE, Sierra Club, and ADP v. USFS), this destruction is moving forward without environmental analysis or public input while we appeal the disappointing decision to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Here's how you can help: 1. Choose a threatened area in the Allegheny National Forest to monitor:
You may choose your area based on your favorite watershed or by your least-favorite drilling company. The image on the above left is a community walk map, which shows the TEIS areas. This interactive map can help you locate your area on the ground (make sure you zoom-out to see the whole map, areas listed on the left of map link to locations). We also highly recommend purchasing an Allegheny National Forest Map from one of the ANF U.S. Forest Service Offices (word of caution: these maps are out of date and do not reflect all of the roads in the forest). 2. Contact our outreach coordinator Megan Rulli with your site choice at mrulli@alleghenydefense.org and sign up for the Forest Watch If you are not specifically drawn to one of the imminently threatened areas (TEIS Areas), no worries, the whole forest needs guardians and watchers. The U.S. Forest Servic 3. Finally, if you are able, please support our Forest Watch and ongoing litigation efforts (including an appeal of the decision mentioned above) by donating to ADP. Background: Last year, before our settlement was enjoined, the U.S. Forest Service began an Environmental Analysis based on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). However, they interpreted the "site-specific" requirement of the process as the whole Forest (i.e., the Allegheny itself was the "site" in "site-specific"). This interpretation resulted in something the U.S. Forest Service ANF officials call the Transition Environmental Impact Statement (TEIS). The Federal Court granting an injunction requested by the oil and gas companies to stop the Environmental Analysis truncated this process last December. The TEIS remains "on-hold" (according to the USFS). Although the majority of oil and gas companies operating in the forest did not cooperate with the U.S. Forest Service while they attempted to minimize and mitigate the damage the drillers would do to the public surface of the Forest, the U.S. Forest Service did identify 20 areas and sub-areas that they knew would be impacted by drilling in the next three year period (although they pulled the known Marcellus Shale gas well sites from the analysis). These oil and gas drilling operations the U.S. Forest Service calls TEIS Part I.
Helpful Links Priority Areas for Forest Watch: TEIS Part I Read More: Join the Forest Watch Team Allegheny National Forest TEIS Drilling Operations Map TEIS Part I Drilling Area by Company, Case Number TEIS Part I Drilling Area by Watershed, Management, Use Photos from Oil and Gas Issues Tour March 20 in TEIS Area 18 General Location Map of the Allegheny National Forest USFS Links Transition Environmental Impact Statement (TEIS) Allegheny National Forest Map-USFS Resources
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