For Release June 3, 1998                         Jerry Childress (202) 208-2719
                                            jchildre@osmre.gov

                     REGISTRATION OPEN FOR 
                    PRIME FARMLAND WORKSHOP  

     The Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement
(OSM) today announced that  registration is open for participants in a Prime Farmland
Workshop to be held at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, August 11 and
12, 1998.

     Registration for the workshop should be sent to SIU Carbondale by July 10,
1998, in order to assure processing, but applications will be accepted up to the date of
the forum.  People interested in participating should contact Diane Throgmorton of SIU
at (618) 536-5521.  OSM's point of contact is Kimery Vories, at (618) 463-6463
extension 103, FAX (618) 463 6470, or E-Mail kvories@osmre.gov.  Registration forms
are available on the World Wide Webb at the OSM homepage (http://www.osmre,gov).

     According to OSM Director Kathy Karpan,  the two-day workshop, co-sponsored
by OSM and the Coal Research Center at SIU, is intended to provide hands-on
instruction and interaction for land owners, managers, contractors, and consultants who
are directly associated with agricultural production on surface coal mined lands and
reclaimed prime farmland soils.

     Karpan said that participants will learn about new farming technologies,
practices, management strategies, equipment and information services.  "In addition, a
field tour of actual farming operations and research plots including farming reports will
make the workshop a profitable program for anyone involved in farming prime
farmland," she added. 

     OSM officials said that all participants will be given copies of the latest technical
publications related to the information presented at the workshop.  Speakers will focus
on new or emerging technologies, areas that contain information gaps, or issues that
are commonly misunderstood or controversial.         

                                 

     "August of 1997 marked 20 years of reclaiming prime farmland under the
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA)," Karpan said. " With its
promise of post-mining agricultural productivity, prime farmland restoration has been a
topic of intense interest, both before and after passage of SMCRA."

     "The importance of prime farmland soils to U.S. agriculture has made that aspect
of reclamation one of the most heavily researched topics associated with surface coal
mining," Karpan said.  "Volumes of new information have been written on
interrelationships among crop production, soil compaction, fertility, texture, and
management."

     Karpan pointed out that the potential impacts of coal mining on prime farmland
today are very much different from when SMCRA was first introduced.

     "Many coal mine operators are successfully attaining their revegetation goals and
obtaining reclamation bond release," Karpan said.  "In some parts of the country, mine
operators may be creating prime farmland soils where none existed before.  Meanwhile,
the total acreage of prime farmland being disturbed by surface coal mining is rapidly
diminishing because of the reduction of surface coal mining in the Midwest."

     Although surface coal mining in the Midwest is on the decrease, Karpan noted,
underground coal mining in the region has increased, with potential impacts on prime
farmland, due to subsidence, that are unknown and that were largely unanticipated by
SMCRA.

     Meanwhile, soils and reclamation experts are continuing to research the
complexities associated with projecting actual crop yields based on measurement of
existing soil qualities.  Considerable difference of opinion still exists on the long-term
success of surface mining reclamation on the potential agricultural productivity of prime
farmland soils. 

     OSM officials added that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is in the process of developing detailed
National guidance on the reconstruction of prime farmlands.   NRCS also is beginning
to remap and reevaluate the "man made prime farmland soils" now being returned to
agricultural production so that essential information related to land values, crop
production capabilities, and tax assessments can be accurately established.

                              -DOI-