U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, applauded the Committee for advancing his Shawnee National Forest Conservation Act.
The legislation would establish 12,700 acres of special management areas and 750 acres of wilderness in the Shawnee National Forest. Durbin says securing this designation for these acres would offer critical protections.
The 12,700 acres of special management areas will be from the following areas: nearly 3,000 acres from Camp Hutchins; over 3,400 acres from Ripple Hollow; and 6,300 acres from Burke Branch. The 750 acres of wilderness will be in Camp Hutchins.
The Shawnee National Forest consists of 289,000 acres and its boundaries have been expanded three times since the U.S. Forest Service originally purchased the land in 1933. Roughly 10 percent, or about 30,000 acres, of the Shawnee National Forest is currently protected as wilderness.
Now that the bill has advanced out of the Agriculture Committee, it could now go to the Senate floor for a vote.
