LAND ACQUISITION FOR TRAIL CONCERNS FARMERS IN CRAIG

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 27, 1993                   TAG: 9302270068
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium
LAND ACQUISITION FOR TRAIL CONCERNS FARMERS IN CRAIG
The National Park Service's effort to acquire more land for the Appalachian Trail is causing concern among some landowners in Craig County.
Two families are complaining that the government wants to take most of the acreage of their farms, and in one case, prime pastures.
Glenn Oliver said he already lost part of his 400 acres in Sinking Creek Valley during a court hearing.
Oliver said the Park Service won a condemnation battle for 21 of his most choice acres. Representatives from the Park Service's office in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., are handling negotiations for acquiring the land. They could not be reached for comment.
Oliver said the price he will be paid has not been settled. But Oliver said the Park Service is offering $750 an acre, and he thinks the land is worth far more than that.
The Park Service is acquiring land in Craig County to widen the Appalachian Trail's right of way to 1,000 feet in an effort to ensure unspoiled scenery along the 2,000-mile walking trail that runs uninterrupted between Georgia and Maine.
Another landowner in Sinking Creek is fearful that his whole beef-cattle operation will be demolished if the Park Service succeeds in getting the land it wants from him.
Alan R. Lugar, who owns a 100-acre tract beside the trail in Sinking Creek, said the Park Service wants 69 acres of his best land, which contains prime pastures, his main barn and principal water source for his cattle operation.
Lugar's wife, Diane, said that if the Park Service takes that land, "it will really put us in a bind financially."
Even if they got enough money from the Park Service to replace the land, she asked, "Where would we find prime land to buy?"
Diane Lugar said the land that would be left is sloping and would have no access. She said she and her husband own other property in Craig, but it would be "very expensive" to move the center of the cattle operation.
She said her family has been in a series of meetings with Park Service representatives for the last nine months and they have not been able to agree on a settlement.
At one point, she said, the Park Service offered an easement agreement in which the Lugars would retain ownership of the land but not develop it.
"We gave them assurance that we would not develop it, and that if we ever decided to sell it, the Park Service could buy it," she said. "But they wouldn't accept that."
The easement agreement contained so many restrictions they would not be able to use the land for anything, she said.
"We would be paying taxes on it but could not use it," she said. "We definitely were not in favor of that."
A third landowner, Ralph Bradley of New Castle, also is being asked to give up land for the Appalachian Trail. He could not be reached for comment.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB