OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION & ENFORCEMENT

For Release:  January 23, 1991
Alan Cole (202) 208-2719

OSM SIGNS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH DUCKS UNLIMITED TO
SUPPORT WETLANDS INITIATIVE

Secretary of the Interior Manual Lujan announced today that the
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) and
Ducks Unlimited, Inc., will sign a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) in support of the Bush Administration's "no net loss" of
wetlands objective.

"This agreement will help us protect and extend the kind of wetland
habitat that attracts and sustains diverse waterfowl species, a
major environmental goal," Lujan said.

OSM Director Harry M. Snyder and Ducks Unlimited Executive Vice
President Matthew B. Connolly, Jr., will sign the MOU at a ceremony
at the Interior Department, 1849 C Street N.W., Wednesday, January
23, at 2 p.m.

Snyder said the agreement will help focus attention on wetland
environments as an environmental plus in and near coal-producing
areas. "Surface mine reclamation doesn't have to be all forest or
all grassland," he said.  "There is plenty of room for wetland
reclamation, a goal that we welcome Ducks Unlimited's help in
advancing."

The MOU stresses cooperative activities to preserve and create
wetlands, including waterfowl habitats, as a legitimate post-mining
use on reclaimed coal mine sites regulated under the Surface Mining
Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.  Additionally, the MOU pledges
support for the North American Waterfowl Management Plan to
conserve waterfowl habitats in the United States and Canada, and to
promote wetlands education for the coal industry, private
associations, and State agencies.

Both OSM and Ducks Unlimited have been leaders in supporting the
conservation and creation of wetlands.  The 1989 OSM Director's
Award for coal mine reclamation was awarded to the Illinois
Division of Peabody Coal Company for turning the abandoned Will
Scarlett Mine in southern Illinois into an 8,000-acre wetland area
which supports a resident Canada goose population and provides
winter refuge for thousands of migrating waterfowl.  Under
carefully controlled conditions, OSM also supports experimental
practices at commercial surface coal mining and reclamation
operations aimed at creating biologically diverse wetland habitat
as a viable reclamation alternative.

OSM joins two other Interior Department agencies, the Bureau of
Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, which previously
signed similar MOUs with Ducks Unlimited.

-DOI-