Private property owners in and around Wayne National Forest have taken their cause all the way to the nation's capital in an effort to protect their land and mineral leasing rights. Representatives from the National Association of Royalty Owners and the Landowners for Energy Access and Safe Exploration met in July with Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, Congressmen Bill Johnson and Bob Gibbs , the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of the Secretary, and the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and Energy and Mineral Resources, to discuss private property rights of land and mineral owners adjacent to Wayne National Forest parcels.