The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association feels the U.S. Forest Service is targeting the industry in its proposed forest plan for the Allegheny National Forest, and is hoping to receive the backing of local municipal officials if the federal agency rules adversely against its appeals.

As it stands, there are about 60 oil and gas producers working on the forest. Both POGAM and its members have filed numerous appeals against the forest plan.

The Forest Service in Washington is expected to rule on the appeals sometime this month.

“We expect they (Forest Service) will approve the plan without any revisions that substantively address our concerns,” POGAM Executive Director Steve Rhoads said Wednesday. “We had been led to believe otherwise.”

According to a copy of a letter dated Feb. 6 from Craig Mayer, chairman of the Allegheny National Forest Committee of POGAM, the industry believes the Forest Service intends to dismiss their appeals, leaving the courts as the next avenue in reaching an agreement regarding the situation, which officials believe could not only damage the industry but “seriously wound” the region’s economy.

In June, POGAM officials said the agency is concerned with the elements of the plan that are a major change in the management policy regarding the relationship between the forest land surface and the underlying oil, gas and mineral rights that have been privately owned and controlled for years.

To that end, a December meeting was held in Erie between U.S. Forest Service and POGAM officials in an attempt to work out the issues on the table and resolve the appeals “inexpensively, informally and amicably.”

“Information provided at that meeting lead the participants to believe the Forest Service was moving on a path of attempting to remove the inappropriate oil and gas provisions from the Forest Plan,” Mayer wrote in the letter, which went out to municipal officials in McKean, Elk, Forest and Warren counties. “This was encouraging as it would have resulted in a termination of the appeals and ushered in a fresh, non-confrontational approach to addressing each others’ concerns.”

However, that now doesn’t appear to be the case.

Mayer said two weeks ago, POGAM learned the Forest Service’s position had changed and the appeals filed by the industry’s producers will be processed through the normal Forest Service procedures. The ultimate decision will be decided by Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimball.

“Given this hasty change of course, we expect the Forest Service will dismiss these appeals, and attempt to force any resolution into the courts,” Mayer wrote. “We hope this will not be the case.”

For her part, ANF Acting Public Affairs Officer Kathe Frank said Wednesday the appeal process is still unfolding.

“We are waiting on a decision just like the appellants,” Frank said, adding the forest plan has been the subject of around 80 appeals. “There are a number of entities that didn’t like some aspect of the plan and an appeal is how they make that known.”

This is only the second forest plan developed since 1986.

Mayer, citing the Weeks Act, said in his letter the federal government’s right to regulate private subsurface holdings on federal land is limited; he said the proposed forest plan attempts to regulate oil and gas rights on the forest. Mayer said the act requires the Secretary of Agriculture to conclude on a tract-by-tract basis that any reservations of easements or minerals would not interfere with the use of the lands for the purpose of the act.

“As a result of these policy decisions and legal findings, 93 percent of the ANF land base subsurface, or some 480,000 acres, is today privately owned in the form of reserved mineral estates,” Mayer wrote. “The U.S. government does not now and has never owned these properties.”

The oil and gas industry has undergone a boom in recent years, with the number of oil and gas well drilling permits hitting record levels across the region, including on the forest.

“It appears to POGAM that the principals responsible for drafting and adopting the new Forest Plan did so in part as a response to increased drilling activity that routinely accompanies the historic booms in the boom-and-bust cycles of the oil and gas industry, part in response to the frustrations they encountered in dealing with the complicated mineral and surface ownership rights in the ANF, and part in reaction to anti-industry sentiments,” Mayer wrote.

According to figures cited in Mayer’s letter, a study by Penn State University concludes the approximately 8,000 operating wells on the forest support about 800 oil and gas workers. Conversely, those 800 direct employees support another 480 workers that also contribute to the region’s economy, generating more than $64 million in total financial compensation and about $5.7 million in property taxes paid by those workers.

“We play an important role in the economy,” Rhoads said. “We provide a lot of jobs, a lot of income ... we buy goods and services. We are certainly not interested in seeing any action by the U.S. Forest Service that would undermine the viability of our operations in the region.”

Mayer also said POGAM is concerned with a discussion about applying National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes to the development of private mineral rights, which has been raised by the ANF Forest Plan Task Force charged with reviewing oil and gas issues.

If the measures are indeed taken by the Forest Service, industry officials said they will turn to the local communities for assistance in helping obtain a discretionary review of the Forest Service ruling by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer.

“We can’t speculate on why they (Forest Service) are doing this,” Rhoads said. “Hopefully, they will explain the rationale for their actions when they formally release them. We can then get a better understanding on what their thinking is and determine what our next steps should be.”

A ruling on the appeals could come down as early as Friday, forest officials said.

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