Open house on Shawnee Forest and Peabody land swap is Wednesday
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Shawnee National Forest is hosting an open house concerning the proposed land exchange between American Land Holdings of Illinois and the U.S. Forest Service 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Shawnee National Forest Headquarters.
The open house provides the public an opportunity to ask questions and exchange information about the proposal prior to the deadline for comments Jan. 31.
American Land Holdings of Illinois -- a land acquisition service of Peabody Energy -- proposed to the Forest Service a swap of two properties in Pope County and one in Jackson County in exchange for a parcel of U.S. Forest property in Gallatin County to build a strip mine.
Recently a scoping letter and the proposed action was mailed to interested citizens, outlining the land-exchange proposal. The scoping information, land exchange proposal and maps are available at the Forest's website. Printed versions of the proposal are available upon request from Forest Headquarters.
The U.S. Forest Service asks for site-specific comments that include the date, commenter's name, contact information and the project title of "Land Exchange Proposal" in the subject line. Electronic comments may be sent by e-mail to comments_eastern-shawnee@fs.fed.us. Written comments may be sent to Allen Nicholas, Forest Supervisor, Shawnee National Forest, Attn.: Land Exchange Proposal, 50 Highway 145 South, Harrisburg, Ill. 62946.
The environmental analysis of the proposal is at the Web site http://www.fs.usda.gov/shawnee