http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/07/08/earth-first-blocks-fracke... "Earth First" Shuts Down Drilling Site in Moshannon State Forest A group call­ing itself Mar­cel­lus Earth First! has set up a block­ade in Moshan­non State For­est, pre­vent­ing the nat­ural gas com­pany EQT from oper­at­ing a well. A report on an Earth First! web­site says the block­ade on a gravel road began before 9:30 Sun­day morn­ing with about 40 pro­tes­tors who suc­cess­fully pre­vented a truck from enter­ing the drill site. EQT spokesper­son Natalie Cox says the drilling oper­a­tions have shut down due to safety con­cerns for the company’s employ­ees, con­trac­tors, police and pro­test­ers. Cox says activ­i­ties at the well pad were in the early stages.

EQT is one of the top ten largest drillers in Penn­syl­va­nia, with about 300 active wells in the west­ern part of the state. For more infor­ma­tion on EQT’s drilling oper­a­tions, visit our Shale Map App.

Pike County res­i­dent Alex Lotorto, who says he’s not a mem­ber of Mar­cel­lus Earth First!, but joined the rally, says two peo­ple have climbed trees and strung cables across an access road in such a way that cut­ting them would cause the tree climbers to fall and face seri­ous injury or even death. Lotorto says state police are on the scene.

“Police inter­ac­tion has been cour­te­ous and respect­ful,” says Lotorto. “We want to make this safe as possible.”

A state police offi­cer reached by phone at the Dubois, Pa. office would not pro­vide any infor­ma­tion. The Moshan­non State For­est spans three coun­ties, but the protest is in the Clearfield County sec­tion of the forest.

Lotoro said a group of pro­tes­tors had dragged logs and branches from the for­est to build block­ades across the access road the night before the protest. A sign hang­ing from the site reads “Mar­cel­lus Earth First, no frack­ing no com­pro­mise.” Earth First! is an envi­ron­men­tal activist group that uses direct action and is pri­mar­ily known for protest­ing log­ging in forests along the West Coast. The group often employs the tac­tic of climb­ing into trees to stop indus­trial activ­ity and call atten­tion to their cause. Janis Copen­haver lives near Big Run, Jef­fer­son County, not too far from the drill site. Reached by phone, Copen­haver said she didn’t know any­thing about the action until she over­heard oth­ers in her town talk­ing about it.

“I wish I had the time and gump­tion to do this,” said Copen­haver. “But I have to have a full­time job, pay a mort­gage, and take care of my ani­mals. I appre­ci­ate it when some­one else is try­ing to defend the earth and the life I love living.”

Copen­haver said it took her two hours to find the pro­test­ers on a remote access road in the for­est. She says she plans to bring food and water up the mountain. “I can’t be up there hang­ing from a tree,” said Copen­haver, “but I’ll do what I can.”

Copen­haver says she wor­ries about gas drilling’s impact on her water. She says another drill rig sits about 600 yards from her drink­ing water well and she gets her water tested every two weeks. Lately, she says the salin­ity, and the amount of total dis­solved solids have increased.

“It’s just too fright­en­ing, so I started buy­ing bot­tled water yes­ter­day,” said Copenhaver.

Drilling for nat­ural gas in state forests is con­tro­ver­sial. Although the state has leased out min­eral rights in state forests since 1947, the Mar­cel­lus Shale boom has meant a rapid expan­sion of indus­trial activ­ity on state land. More than 700,000 acres of for­est land have already been leased – about twenty per­cent of that for Mar­cel­lus pads. The Depart­ment of Con­ser­va­tion and Nat­ural Resources pre­dicts more than 1,000 drilling rigs may dot the forests, once pro­duc­tion is at full capac­ity. Many feared Gov­er­nor Cor­bett would expand drilling in the forests, but his 2012–2013 bud­get did not include any plans to lease out addi­tional state for­est land for nat­ural gas drilling.

Submitted by Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net