A public comment period ends Monday on an initiative setting the framework for future oil and gas leasing in an ecologically diverse national forest within Alabama.
The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have described an update of leasing policy for the Conecuh National Forest largely as a continuation of the status quo, which has resulted in relatively little oil and gas extraction. Critics of the process have raised concerns that the existing plan and possible variations do too little to protect an ecologically diverse region from disruption and pollution.
The Conecuh National Forest includes about 85,000 acres of land in south Alabama. It borders the state line north of the Florida Panhandle, southeast of Evergreen and southwest of Andalusia. It includes large stretches of longleaf pine forests and provides habitat for threatened or endangered species including the red-cockaded woodpecker, the eastern indigo snake and the gopher tortoise…