Workshops on oil and gas leases and the extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing (fracking) will be held this month in Bowling Green and Montross.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Rappahannock, the workshops, which are free and open to the public, will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11, at Bowling Green Town Hall, 117 Butler Street, Bowling Green, and Thursday, Dec. 12, in the General District Courtroom, 111 Polk Street, Montross.

According to the Friends of the Rappahannock website, as of July 2013, 84,000 acres of land had been leased by Shore Exploration and Production Corporation of Texas in the Taylorsville Basin shale deposit south of Fredericksburg.

The five counties in which the leases are located, the acres of land under lease in each county, and the percentage of total land area affected in each locality are: Caroline, 40,733 acres, 11.8 percent; Essex, 13,338 acres, 7.3 percent, King and Queen, 6,010, 2.9 percent, King G...