North Richland Hills Little Bear Creek Park Under Gas Attack

I got email this morning from a North Richland Hills citizen named Barry Thompson. North Richland Hills is north of Richland Hills and is one of the dozens of small towns that make up the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Barry Thompson is fighting to stop yet one more natural gas drilling operation getting ready to do damage to yet one more D/FW park. Yesterday I showed you photos of the current state of the damage done to the Tandy Hills in east Fort Worth.

And now this morning to learn of this latest local city government sneaky operation in cahoots with the drillers, doing their dirty dealings behind closed doors without public input. Shameful.

Below is the email from Barry Thompson....

I am a huge supporter of reforestation in the DFW area and have worked on tree grant programs when I lived in Fort Worth.I am very disturbed by the decision by the North Richland Hills city council to allow Natural Gas Drilling rigs on park property. There is a gas company currently surveying and staking out a very large section of Little Bear Creek Park in the northwest part of NRH. They have flagged many, many mature trees for clear cutting. Many of the trees are native breeds and a large part of them are evergreens planted by the city over ten years ago!

The decision was made with virtually no notice to the public other than what is required by law - posting a public hearing date in the paper. Therefore not one resident spoke when the issue came up to vote ... no one knew about it!

We are currently organizing, passing out flyers and getting petitions signed before a drilling permit gets signed. I have also been talking to John Pistick and members of the Parks and Recreation department for NRH but nobody seems too interested in stopping this activity. Is there anything you can do to help us? Is there anyone in this area that could be an advocate for our cause?

Thanks in advance for your consideration, if you have any suggestions that would help us fight this please let me know!

Sincerely,
Barry Thompson