Feds schedule meetings to discuss possible fracking leases in Wayne National Forest

The federal government will hold three meetings this week concerning the possibility of opening Wayne National Forest to fracking. Oil and gas companies have formally expressed interest to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in hydraulically fracturing about 31,900 acres of the Wayne. The bureau is reviewing those requests to see if the federal government owns the mineral rights beneath those sections of the forest, and it plans to assess potential environmental risks.