Mark Twain National Forest land exchange favors mining company
2025 Doe Run Land Exchange (LEX) Proposal
U.S. Forest Service· Mark Twain National Forest, Houston/Rolla/Cedar Creek Ranger DistrictU.S. Forest Service project page ↗
Forest ServiceWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
The groups on this fight
3 groups work Missouri
By footprint, from the same match the STAND matchmaker runs; none is linked to this decision in our record yet. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Sierra Club
Works Missouri: its Missouri Chapter joined Heartwood and the Missouri Forest Alliance in an October 2024 formal objection to the revised forest plan over removed roadless areas, lead mining, and subsidized commercial logging..
- Southern Environmental Law Center
Works Missouri: its February 2024 timber targets lawsuit charges the Forest Service with ignoring the cumulative climate impacts of logging projects including one on the Mark Twain National Forest..
- The Conservation Fund
Works Missouri: has conveyed more than 2,000 acres into the forest, including Current River frontage in 2016 and 229 acres at Piney Creek Wilderness in 2018..
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
The Forest Service plans to give a mining company 2,616 acres of federal land for only 354 acres in return.
What’s at risk
Only people who submitted written comments during earlier public participation are eligible to file an objection now. About 2,616 acres of Mark Twain National Forest land in Missouri would be transferred to Doe Run Resources Corporation, a mining company, in exchange for roughly 354 acres of the company's private land.
If this goes through
Once the exchange is finalized, more than 2,600 acres of federal public land in Mark Twain National Forest would permanently pass into private corporate ownership, removing it from public access and federal management.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
4 holes in the agency’s own analysis
What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- The Forest Service proposes to transfer roughly 2,616 acres of federal land in the Mark Twain National Forest to Doe Run Resources Corporation, a mining company, while receiving only about 354 acres of private land in return.
- This land exchange would remove more than 2,600 acres of public land in the Houston/Rolla/Cedar Creek Ranger District from federal ownership, permanently reducing the public's access to that National Forest land.
- The acreage being given to Doe Run Resources Corporation is nearly seven and a half times greater than the acreage the public would receive, which raises serious questions about whether this exchange serves the public interest.
- I oppose the Environmental Assessment and draft Finding of No Significant Impact for this exchange, as transferring over 2,616 acres of Mark Twain National Forest land to a private mining corporation warrants a full Environmental Impact Statement.
Show all 6 points from the document
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
In the agency’s own words
This project covers a Land Exchange (LEX) of approximately 353.7 acres of private lands, adjacent to Mark Twain National Forest (MTNF) land on the Houston/Rolla/Cedar Creek (HRCC) Ranger District for approximately 2,616.11 acres of Federal lands.
The reporting behind this
From More Than Just ParksIt’s referred to as Unit 346 in the Twin Mountain II Timber Sale. On the ground, it’s some of the most spectacular old growth we’ve ever witnessed, and it’s marked for clearcutting.
To document and do our part to save America’s greatest old growth forest
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