WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJPF) – Senator Dick Durbin has introduced legislation that would create over 12,000 additional acres of special management areas and 750 more acres of wilderness in the Shawnee National Forest.
The new special management areas will be from the Camp Hutchins, Ripple Hollow, Burke Branch areas. The 750 additional acres of wilderness will be in Camp Hutchins.
The Shawnee National Forest consists of 289,000 acres. Roughly 10 percent, or about 30,000 acres, is currently protected as wilderness.
