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Comments sought on land swap between Forest Service and Peabody

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comment on a possible swap of property with American Land Holdings of Illinois.

American Land Holdings of Illinois -- a subsidiary of Peabody Energy -- approached the Shawnee National Forest wanting to exchange three properties it holds in Pope and Jackson county for a federal property in Gallatin County for developing a coal strip mining operation.

The Gallatin federal parcel is 384 acres that adjoins the Saline River. The parcel is forested with bottomland hardwoods and upland hardwoods. The property is two miles west of the Ohio River, nearly due south of Shawneetown and just north of the Hardin County line. The majority of the property falls within the Forest Service designation of Minimum Management Area with little management by the agency, though 29 acres are managed within the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers Floodplain Management Area.

"It is all forested and has had some past mining activity, some small-scale slope mining," SNF Lands Program Manager Ron Scott said.

One of the parcels Peabody is offering is 481 acres in Pope County north of Lusk Creek. It includes 250 acres of hardwood forest, 10 acres of grassland and about 221 acres of former agricultural land with herbaceous and woody vegetation.

Scott described it as 2/3 open land and 1/3 forested.

"It has been farmed in the past and is starting to revert to early woodland stage," Scott said.

It also contains several tributaries that flow into Lusk Creek and a 6-acre wetland created by beavers. Access is from Clark Road that runs through a large portion of the property. The parcel adjoins a 3,000-acre federal contiguous forest block to the north and would connect an isolated federal 30-acre tract of federal land.

Flick Branch forms a portion of the eastern boundary.

The second Pope County parcel is 80 acres within the Lusk Creek Wilderness Area 1 mile west of Hartsville. Little Lusk Creek cuts through the northwest corner of the parcel and the East Fork of Little Lusk Creek runs to the south and east. The parcel lies between two Wild and Scenic River corridors -- Lusk Creek to the west and Big Grand Pierre Creek several miles to the east.

The parcel is entirely forested with maturing second-growth hardwoods and is part of a 10,000-acre contiguous forested track centered around Lusk Creek Wilderness.

The Jackson County property is 270 acres between Fountain Bluff to the east and the Mississippi River to west and adjoins a 3,000-acre block of National Forest System land to the north.

The parcel is on the river side of the levee. Some portions have been farmed. Other portions include older riparian forest and a slough. Tree species within the property are black willow, older black willow trees, bald cypress, cottonwood, sycamore and ash.

"It&#39;s an interesting piece of property. It would be one of the few areas of (SNF) ownership actually against the Mississippi River," Scott said.

Scott said the Forest Service&#39;s desire is to dispose of a remote and isolated property that is not managed in exchange for property that adjoins existing SNF property.

He encourages people with a personal stake in any of the parcels to comment on the proposal. The public comment period is to gauge public sentiment and give the Forest Service a range of ideas to take into consideration.

Comments may be made by Jan. 31, 2012. Comments should include the project title ALHI-Shawnee NF Land Exchange Proposal, the date the comment was written, the commenter&#39;s name and contact information in order to keep the project mailing list updated.

The Forest Service invites online comments to be sent to comments-eastern-shawnee@fs.fed.us

Written comments may be mailed to Huston A. Nicholas, Forest Supervisor, Shawnee National Forest, ATTN: ALHI-Shawnee NF Land Exchange Proposal, 50 Highway 145 South, Harrisburg, Ill. 62946.

For additional information or if interested in visiting the non-Federal parcels people may contact Ron Scott at (618) 253-1038 or e-mail him at ronscott@fs.fed.us

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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>

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