20 years of environmental action on Shawnee

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Twenty years ago a group of individuals who loved the Shawnee National Forest gained national attention and found their arguments influencing environmental case law from coast to coast.

Sam Stearns gave a history of the Shawnee National Forest and local environmental activism to the Harrisburg Rotary Club Monday.

"Outside of my family affiliations, I am first and foremost a tree hugger," Stearns said.

He said the term tree hugger is often used as a derogatory term by those who wish to discredit the environmental movement. He also believes if not for the work of a few, their growth and their influence our forest would be much altered.

"If it were not for the folks standing up protecting our public land, that land would not be worth visiting, I don't think," Stearns said.

Writings from some of the early settlers document a forest much different than ours today with 6-foot diameter oaks and 15-foot diameter sycamores. The canopy was closed in many areas. Wood bison roamed the grounds while passenger pigeons and migrating Carolina parakeets roamed the skies.

Stearns said some settlers could actually use the sycamore trees -- which often grow with a hollow trunk -- as a shelter as they cut the oaks to build permanent homes.

Cutting wood was a necessary burden as the settlers built structures and cleared areas for crops and grazing; the wood itself contained little monetary value.

As the area was settled 99 percent of the forest was cleared. But the hilly land was not well suited for raising crops and livestock contributed to erosion.

People began moving out, unable to support their families.

Stearns hometown of McCormick near Eddyville saw a population of 2,500 between 1900 and 1928. Now there are nine households there.

The U.S. Forest Service bought the depleted land, regarded as the land nobody wanted. Stearns said the 2 to 3 feet of topsoil was lost prior to the creation of the Shawnee National Forest.

The original intent was the creation of two national forests: The Illini west of what is now Interstate 57 and the Shawnee in the eastern part.

President Teddy Roosevelt's administration decided to combine both into the Shawnee National Forest.

The Civil Conservation Corps worked to build trail systems and created stone stairways and other structures at Bell Smith Springs and Giant City.

"They recognized the forest back then in the 1930s as a valuable resource," Stearns said.

"In the 1960s and 1970s the priorities of the Forest Service were to suppress fires and recreation."

Pounds Hollow and Lake Glendale recreation areas came into existence.

"It was a place my folks would take me on weekends to hunt, fish and hike around. I didn't know anything about science or biology, but I knew there was something special going on there," Stearns said.

In the 1970s the Illinois Natural History Survey identified Natural Areas that were the spots most like the original condition of the forest. Stearns said those natural areas make up 7/100 of 1 percent of the state.

In the 1960s came the first environmental battle of the forest with the proposal to dam Lusk Creek for the development of a private lake. Dan Malkovich, publisher of Outdoor Illinois magazine, led the fight to save Lusk Creek, identified by the Illinois Natural History Survey as the most significant ecological site in the state.

Malkovich organized the Sierra Club and Audubon societies. He also started a committee to impound Rend Lake.

With the creation of Rend Lake the area of Rend City was submerged.

"The land was poisoned. No one wanted to live there," Stearns said.

Lusk Creek was a different matter.

"It would have been a great loss, and I think most people would agree, if Lusk Creek was put under water," Stearns said.

The Forest Service eventually began cutting trees once they became large enough.

Stearns said those who would become leaders in the local environmental movement were not initially opposed to logging.

The Forest Service practices came to the attention of Mark Donham and Kristi Hanson when they moved to southern Pope County after having worked for the Forest Service planting trees in Arkansas and elsewhere.

The overspray from helicopters killed the vegetation in their yard. When they investigated they learned the Forest Service was spraying a nearby pine plantation to kill the hardwoods, Stearns said.

The couple organized their neighbors and formed the Association of Concerned Environmentalists, or ACE. The group's complaints stopped the helicopter spraying program.

Meanwhile, Joe Glisson, operator of the Pomona General Store, learned of the Forest Service's plan to clearcut Cave Valley near Pomona. He also learned the clearcut was going to be a monetary loss to the Forest Service. Stearns said the Forest Service planned to lose money on the timber sale in order to boost their budget the following year.

Glisson and others in the Pomona area joined with Donham and Hanson to form the Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists, or RACE.

Stearns joined with the group and found the logging interests were eager to marginalize those who opposed their practices with terms like "tree hugger."

Media painted pictures of the group as fringe hippies. Stearns said it was frustrating the television stations favored images of "long-haired, barefoot people passing a joint" over images of the men in their suits walking into court.

The combined efforts of ACE, RACE and other groups shut down clearcutting on the forest and there was a ripple effect.

"There are court cases all over the country based on case law we established on the Shawnee National Forest," Stearns said.

"Once we got a handle on how to protect the Shawnee from timber sales, folks from other states started coming to us for help."

There was a meeting of the various groups in 1991 and that meeting spawned the group Heartwood. Heartwood grew to protect areas in 18 states from logging.

Stearns and other environmentalists are now concerned with the Forest Service's plans for widspread controlled burning and use of pesticides.

"The idea of burning forests for its help is the same as clearcutting for its help," Stearns said.

"Nature, if you let it work, it works around the clock. Nobody has been able to replicate or do a better job."

-- DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.

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