Denton, about 40 miles northeast of Azle, is in the heart of the Barnett Shale gas patch. In rural areas the telltale sign of a gas well is a fenced-in field and signs saying, “No Trespassing” and “No Smoking.” But in cities, the placement gets more creative. In Denton, there are wells near the University of North Texas’s football stadium and on the grounds of a high school. But the prospect of a fracked future for their city has prompted a group of activists to fight back. “I didn’t set out to be a fracktivist,” says Maile Bush, a fast-talking stay-at-home mother who lives near the Ogletrees in the Meadows at Hickory Creek. “We’re moms and retirees and doctors and lawyers and nurses. We’re not some Berkeley enclave.” Bush is active in a group called Frack Free Denton, which in February began circulating a petition to outlaw hydraulic fracturing […]