State geological surveys of West Virginia,

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky,

and Virginia. The author thanks 

individuals from the Forest Service (U.S. 

Department of Agriculture, the National

Park Service (U.S. Department of the 

Interior), and the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers for supplying estimates of 

Federal mineral ownership. Guidance

from persons at the Bureau of Land 

Management is also appreciated.

Resources on Federal Lands

Federal surface lands in the eastern

United States include National Forests,

U.S. military properties, Tribal land,

National Parks, water bodies, other

recreational areas, and historical sites

(fig. 2). In the coal-bearing area of the

Appalachian Basin, about 90 percent of

Federal land is in National Forests. Four

of the assessed Appalachian units have

less than 5 percent of their assessed

resource area under Federal surface

ownership; the Fire Clay coal zone has

15 percent of its area under Federal

 surface ownership. Coal units assessed in

the West can have nearly 100 percent of

their area in Federal coal ownership.

Ownership of surface rights does not

imply ownership of mineral rights, which

include coal rights. The amount of federally

owned coal is in a state of flux on

eastern Federal lands. Through time,

mineral rights can be acquired by the

Federal government or can revert to it

from prior owners.

Officials at individual Federal sites

estimated the percentage of their land on

which the Federal Government owns the

mineral rights. Tonnages of Federal coal

were calculated by using these percentages

and the total tonnage estimates from

Tewalt (2001). This method only 

approximates the actual coal tonnage that

is federally owned and does not include

Federal coal that does not underlie

Federal lands.

Figure 3 summarizes, by State, 

estimates of remaining federally owned 

coal resources and describes coal quality

for each assessed coal bed or coal zone

based on results from the Nort

Central Appalachian Basin Co

Assessment Team (in press).

Conclusions

Although Federal ownersh

remaining tonnage in the five 

Appalachian coals potentially 

4,000 million short tons, this c

necessarily available or econo

feasible to mine. The scattered g

distribution of mineral owners

and existence of legal, surfac

technological restrictions on 

minability of these coals could 

much of the estimated resourc

consideration for development

Most remaining resources 

assessed units are thinner and 

depths than the resources that 

already been mined. It is unlik

federally owned coal in the as

or zones in the northern and ce

Appalachian Basin coal region

utilized extensively in the near 

—Susa

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

USGS Fact Sh

assessed coal beds and zones in the northern

and central Appalachian Basin coal regions.

central Appalachian Basin coal reg

90 percent of Federal land is in Nat
total remaining Pond Creek resources). The Pond Creek coal zone is fairly low in ash yield (aver

weight percent), moderate in sulfur content (1.05 weight percent), and high in gross calorific valu

Btu/lb).

Pocahontas No. 3 Coal Bed

The Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed is the highest quality coal that was assessed. Generally, ash yi

sulfur content are low (5.75 and 0.91 weight percent, respectively) and gross calorific value is high 

Btu/lb). Remaining federally owned resources of the Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed include about 100 

short tons in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Virginia and about 250 mill

tons in West Virginia National Parks, for a total of 350 million short tons (6.9 percent of remaining Poca

No. 3 resources).

Figure 3. Maps of the northern and central Appalachian Basin coal regions showing the distribution of Federal lands (turquoise) and 

known coal resources (gray) in the Pittsburgh coal bed, Upper Freeport coal bed, Fire Clay coal zone, Pond Creek coal zone, and Poc

No. 3 coal bed. The summaries at right give estimates, by State, of remaining federally owned coal resources and coal-quality dat

whole-coal, as-received basis) for each assessed unit. Btu/lb, British thermal units per pound.

References

Northern and Central Appalachian Basin Coal Regions Assessment

Team, in press, 2000 Resource assessment of selected coal beds

and zones in the northern and central Appalachian Basin coal

regions: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1625–C,

CD-ROM’s.

Tewalt, S.J., 2001, Resources on Federal lands for five coal beds in

the northern and central Appalachian Basin coal regions: U.S.

Geological Survey Open-File Report 01–178, 8 p.

Wood, G.H., Jr., Kehn, T.M., Carter, M.D., and Culbertson, W.C.,

1983, Coal resource classification system of the U.S. Geological

Survey: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 891, 65 p.

For more detailed information on the following 

please contact:

National Coal Resource Assessment, Appalachian 

Leslie F. Ruppert (E-mail: lruppert@usgs.gov)

Assessed resources on Appalachian Federal lands

Susan J. Tewalt (E-mail: stewalt@usgs.gov)

U.S. Geological Survey

National Center, Mail Stop 956

Reston, VA 20192