State parks targeted for oil, gas drilling

Sean Logan, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said parks get 40 percent of their money from fees related to camping, boating, beach access, and other recreational activities. If drilling affects the panoramas or the noise level, these other revenue sources could start suffering, he said.

Drilling is still barred in national parks. But the reversal of some state bans coincides with efforts to expand exploration in other previously off-limits locations: offshore in coastal states, near Aztec ruins in New Mexico, and in some urban parks.

Arkansas has signed a lease allowing drilling to begin under Woolly Hollow State Park. Pennsylvania saw its first drilling on state park property this spring.

In July, a judge in West Virginia ruled against the state environmental protection agency’s attempt to block drilling under Chief Logan State Park. The first well in Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park in Carlsbad, N.M., was drilled in 2007.

The US Geological Survey monitors oil and gas activity nationally, though no organization tracks drilling that falls within the boundary of state parks or how much oil and gas can be pulled from that land.

In western New York, retiree Jay Wopperer is fighting a proposal to drill in Allegany State Park, 65,000 acres of forested valleys south of Buffalo.

“I don’t oppose drilling,’’ said Wopperer, of Clarence, N.Y., who has led Audubon Society bird hikes in Allegany for 10 years. “But there are plenty of other places to drill in western New York. This is the people’s park.’’

To drill, roughly 2 acres are cleared of trees and vegetation. Gravel roads are also required to access drilling masts about 120 feet high. Producers have in some cases put mufflers on machinery and reduced other noises, but there are still trucks and other related sounds.

Backers say wellheads and nature trails can coexist, in part because of new technology that reduces the environmental footprint of drilling operations.

In Ohio’s Salt Fork State Park, much of the work would be by directional drilling, a technique that involves entering the surface at one location, making an underground turn, and tunneling sometimes for miles underground to reach oil or natural gas pockets.

“You probably wouldn’t even notice the drilling rigs. It’s very, very environmentally sensitive and, at the same time, would produce a huge amount of revenue,’’ said state Senator Keith Faber, who is pushing a proposal to allow the first-ever drilling in Ohio state parks.

A state committee puts Ohio’s estimated take from new drilling as high as $5 million a year.