Mining company wants to exchange land with Shawnee National Forest

Update

Peabody Energy emailed comments in response to a reporter's request after the story was published. Here are the company's comments:

We feel the land exchange in Gallatin County, Ill., would benefit the U.S. Forest Service and the local community. The exchange would provide two acres of land contiguous to U.S. Forest Service properties in exchange for every one acre that would be received. The USFS filing notes a potential for development, but it is premature to discuss long-term plans. The company routinely evaluates multiple properties for development potential based on a host of factors, including market conditions, geology and transportation considerations.

Meg Gallagher, spokeswoman for Peabody Energy

Original story

A plan to exchange 384 acres of the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois with land owned by a subsidiary of coal mining company Peabody Energy has some calling for a stop to the swap.

American Land Holdings of Illinois LLC wants a parcel of national forest land for a new coal mine and is willing to trade three parcels totaling 831 acres it either owns or has option to buy next to forest service properties.

Environmental groups, including the Shawnee Committee of the Illinois Sierra Club, say the forest land Peabody wants is home to endangered species, including two bat species on the verge of extinction.

The forest service will hold an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. Jan. 25 at Shawnee National Forest headquarters in Harrisburg, Ill., to discuss the proposal.

Ron Scott, lands program manager for the Shawnee National Forest, said it's important for the public to know that the proposal is just in the analysis phase.

"We have made no decision on whether to actually do the exchange," he said. "We're looking for issues we need to know about and take into consideration as we're doing our environmental analysis on the proposal. We still have to take a really hard look at it."

The forest service uses land exchanges to expand its land holdings, Scott said. They have been done before in the Shawnee National Forest, but it's been about 10 years since the last one, he said.

Land exchanges are done on a value basis, not acre-for-acre. The lands proposed for exchange must equal at least 75 percent of the value of the federal land. any difference in value will be made up by the proponent of the exchange, in this case Peabody, in cash, Scott said.

Formal appraisals on the land will be required before the exchange can take place but have not been done yet, so Scott said he could not estimate the value of any of the parcels involved in the proposed exchange.

"We're not proposing the land exchange in order to accommodate or facilitate a mine. If it didn't make sense to us from a purely land exchange standpoint, we wouldn't be doing it," he said. "Now, we have to look at the facts and assume if this occurs there is a high degree of likelihood the federal land would end up being part of a surface mine at some point in the future, and we'll take that into consideration."

A representative of Peabody Energy did not respond to requests for comment.

Jim Bensman, chairman of the Shawnee Committee of the Illinois Sierra Club, said he thinks the land exchange is the worst thing the Shawnee National Forest has ever proposed.

The 384-acre parcel the Shawnee National Forest is considering trading is in Gallatin County along the Saline River.

The endangered Indiana bat has a maternity roost -- where female bats give birth -- on that land, Bensman said. There are two more Indiana bat maternity roosts about a quarter-mile away from that parcel on other forest service land, he said.

The grey bat, also an endangered species, has also been seen feeding on the land the forest service could exchange, Bensman said.

'Utter insanity'

"It is utter insanity for anyone to think this is OK. The Supreme Court has made it clear the forest service is required to give the highest of all priorities to protecting and recovering endangered species," he said. "Trading away vital maternity habitat so it can be strip-mined helps drive them toward extinction. It doesn't help them recover."

The land the forest service would be exchanging also contains bottomland hardwood trees, including the highest quality cherry bark oaks in the Shawnee, according to Bensman. There are also swamp chestnut oak, American elm and red maple trees. About a quarter of the parcel is seasonally flooded forested wetlands.

The forest service would receive in the exchange two parcels in Pope County and one in Jackson County.

Bensman said he believes the forest service should buy the land known as Non-Federal Parcel #3, which is surrounded on all sides by land the forest service already owns in the Lusk Creek Wilderness area.

The other two parcels, Bensman said, should not be a priority for the forest service.

Scott said that parts of the land the forest service would receive in the exchange had been farmed in the past but are slowly coming back.

Non-Federal Parcel #2 in Jackson County has 270 acres on the Mississippi River bluffs and some former farmland.

"There is a significant amount of frontage on the Mississippi, which is something we don't have," Scott said.

Before the exchange can be approved by the forest supervisor, the National Environmental Protection Act requires a full environmental assessment be completed and submitted for public review. The document will contain detailed information about land values and effects on wildlife, botany and other natural resources.

The public may submit comments online and in writing through Jan. 31. Comments may be emailed to comments_eastern-shawnee@fs.fed.us, with "Land Exchange Proposal" in the subject line. Written comments may be mailed to: Allen Nicholas, Forest Supervisor, Shawnee National Forest, Attn.: Land Exchange Proposal, 50 Highway 145 South, Harrisburg, IL 62946.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

50 Highway 145 South, Harrisburg, IL