A battle raging over logging policy of the U.S. Forest Service in the Shawnee National Forest found environmental protesters like Jan Wilder- Thomas weeping for the loss of forest trees.

Protesters stepped in the path of logging trucks at Cripps Bend, a forest area near Pomona, some going as far as cementing their arms into the road on which the trucks had to pass. Loggers could only look on and say they were doing their job.

The controversy has led to emotional battles both in court and among the trees.

Environmental demonstrators camped at Cripps Bend for two weeks in September opposing logging in the area, saying their cause there was but a shadow of protests against the cutting of trees throughout the forest.

Forest Service officials like Tom Neal on the other hand, argued against the protesters, saying logging is healthy for both the forest and the economy.

For now, the Forest Service and the loggers have won; the Cripps Bend area has been logged. But the fight is part of a larger battle, to be waged in the future of the Shawnee and other national forests.

Controversy over the logging in the Shawnee centers around four main issues:the effect of such projects on the existence of forest trees; economic concerns about the sale of timber; logging effects on habitats of Illinois songbirds and logging effects on endangered species.

The forest for the trees

Dennis Gillen, Shawnee National Forest Service planning coordinator, said despite claims from many Southern Illinois environmentalists that the Forest Service is responsible for damaging the forest because of logging, the service is just following orders. He said logging projects initiated by the Forest Service are conducted because of federal laws.

Gillen said the National Forest Management Act, a federal law, includes guidelines the service must follow regarding logging. A Forest Service plan, drafted to follow these requirements, calls for multiple use of the forest. The plan’s goal is to balance the importance of economic resources such as timber with the protection and management of ecosystems, as well as with human recreation.

The amended Shawnee National Forest Service Land and Resource Management Plan calls for 58,700 acres of the 270,000-acre Shawnee National Forest to be logged within approximately 90 years, service officials said. The 58,700 acres amounts to about 22 percent of the forest.

An acre is a four-sided measurement that has 200 ft. per side.

Gillen said attention in the past several years that the logging issue has received may have many believing that large portions of the forest have been cut down. He said this belief is not true.

We are way, way behind on what the forest plan allows, Gillen said. We are only harvesting one-and-one-half percent of the 50,000 acres per year.

The Forest Service is behind on the mandated logging project because of legal appeals from environmental groups claiming the project will or may have detrimental effects on the forest and its natural habitats, Gillen said.

We are well below one-half of one percent of the area because of court appeals, Gillen said.

He said logging in the Shawnee can be likened to only planning on mowing 20 percent of a lawn, and then every year, only cutting a small portion of that 20 percent.

Basically, what we’re doing out there on that forest has a very tiny impact on the total area involved, Gillen said. Most people don’t realize that.

Stephen Hupe, a forester with the service, said logging in the forest is done in a controlled manner which actually benefits some forest vegetation and wildlife.

By cutting out small portions of the forest at a time, more diversity of tree age groups is created, Hupe said. For the forest to be healthy, it must have trees of all different ages and not just one age group.

Hupe said different types of animals, such as the bobcat, deer and other forest wildlife, use trees of different age classes for their food and habitat.

Also, many animals, like deer, like some open areas, Hupe said. Logging as part of forest management helps provide such areas. It can also open an area up so smaller seedlings on the forest floor can get sunlight.

Many local environmentalists said they disagree with Gillen and Hupe. Bill Cronin, an environmental activist who has filed a series of lawsuits against Forest Service operations, said logging in the Shawnee has more of an impact than the Forest Service says.

Cronin said logging disrupts the natural cycle of the forest.

They ought to just let the forest alone, Cronin said. It will do just fine on its own just as it has done for thousands of years.

Cronin said as long as the Forest Service is going to continue to log areas of the forest such as Cripps Bend, the service’s most recent timber sale, environmentalists will fight the service in court and actively protest at logging sites.

They want to continue to cut down trees and fragment the forest, Cronin said. Somebody has to try to ensure that our children and grandchildren will be able to see the forest.

Logging and endangered species

Cronin also said halting logging in the forest would protect more than just the trees.

Cronin filed two lawsuits against the Forest Service claiming logging at Cripps Bend, near Pomona, threatened the habitat of the Indiana bat, a federally endangered specie. In both cases, a federal judge ruled that the Forest Service had adequately determined that logging in the area would not affect the bat’s habitat.

Despite the court ruling, Cronin said he is still not satisfied with the methods the Forest Service used to verify bats were not using Cripps Bend trees for their habitat.

Tom Neal, a Forest Service forester, said the service used sonar bat detectors to test for presence of the bat at Cripps Bend. He said each tree marked for cutting, as well as other trees in the area, were tested, and no evidence of bat presence was discovered.

Basically we take a baseball bat, hit the tree with it, and then tune in the bat detector, Neal said. If there is something (an Indiana bat) in there, it should squeak after that and be picked up on sonar.

Cronin said the method the service used was not effective enough. He said the service should have used mist-netting a process where nets are hung to catch bats which may be flying through a particular area of the forest.

Neal said the service is only required to do mist-netting if the area to be tested is located near perennial streams, which flow year-round and are used by bats. He said Cripps Bend is not near such streams. The court backed this assessment.

Cronin said he does not trust the Forest Service in the assessment of bats and other endangered species in sites to be logged.

In the Forest Service’s environmental assessment they make a big deal about all the streams out here, Cronin said. Besides, the bats don’t just use streams they use hardwoods (trees) too.

Neal said although the Forest Service takes precautions to detect the presence of endangered species in the forest, some endangered species may still be affected by logging.

It’s our goal to maintain a population of endangered species, Neal said. But it’s just reality that some may be taken as a result of forest management. Right or wrong, it’s all a trade-off. The market calls for timber, so it has to be supplied from somewhere.

Jan Wilder-Thomas, an environmentalist from Paducha, Ky., said the life of bats are more important than economic gains.

That kind of willingness to crush all life for a paycheck is rather short-sided, she said. I can’t believe the lack of values such a statement shows.

Neal said even methods for trying to protect endangered species like the bat can harm those species.

Even mist-netting risks the take (death) of a bat, Neal said. When bats are caught in the net, they can possibly be killed or injured in the process.

Logging and Illinois songbirds

In addition to endangered species, some environmentalists said they are concerned about the negative effects logging may have on state songbirds that live in the forest.

Many environmentalists said cutting of forest trees has fragmented the forest from a large body of trees into several small groups of trees. They claim that the fragmentation makes it easier for cowbirds to enter the forest and take over the nests of Illinois songbirds.

A recent ruling by a federal judge will require the Forest Service to reevaluate its logging policy regarding fragmentation. The current policy states that the forest should not be fragmented into groups smaller than 1,100 acres of contiguous tree canopy.

Judge J. Phil Gilbert ruled that this group size was arbitrary and capricious and service policy on fragmentation should be reworked. A hearing where changes in the forest plan will be discussed is scheduled for Oct. 18 at the Benton courthouse.

Ed Cook, a member of Sierra Club, an environmental group, said he believes the judge’s ruling will lead to a policy which better protects forest songbirds.

I believe that what we’re going to see is larger areas of contiguous canopy, Cook said.

Hupe said logging does fragment the forest and may make it easier for cowbirds to take over the nests of songbirds. He said this is not the main reason cowbirds are infiltrating songbird nests, however.

There are cowbirds in the deepest part of the Shawnee; it’s full of cowbirds, Hupe said. Research is still being done, but there just isn’t a good solution for cowbirds as of yet.

Hupe said many farms surrounding the Shawnee attract a large portion of cowbirds to the forest because cowbirds feed on the waste of livestock. He also said the forest is already fragmented from timber harvests dating back to the first settlers of the Shawnee area.

Neal said trapping cowbirds may be a method the service will use in the future to control the impact they have on songbirds, but no real solution is in sight.

Some environmentalists, such as Wilder-Thomas, still claim that the Forest Service is compromising both trees and wildlife to appease corporations looking to make money off of Shawnee timber.

Logging and the economy

Wilder-Thomas said the benefits of timber to the economy do not outweigh the beauty of the forests and its animals.

I believe in a better place where greed and arrogance do not appear to bull-doze over beauty, she said.

Neal said attitudes like Wilder-Thomas’ are hypocritical because most people use the wood that forests provide.

Unless everybody’s living in an all-stone house, I really don’t understand what they are shouting about, Neal said. It all seems pretty hypocritical.

Other environmentalists said they are not against logging as long as it does not significantly affect the forest and its wildlife, and the public benefits from the timber sale.

Gary Wolf, a former newspaper reporter who covered environmental issues in the western United States, said although he is not against logging altogether, he questions whether the public is benefiting from the sale of public trees.

Wolf, who now considers himself an environmentalist and concerned citizen, said he is concerned that local media are not following the money trail to determine who is making money off of timber harvests such as the Cripps Bend sale.

A signed affidavit, submitted by Gillen to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, states the total value of the Cripps Bend lumber produced from the cut to be $73,900.

Gillen estimated in the affidavit that Carbondale Veneer, a local logging company, would make a profit of about $25,374 from the sale after all expenses, such as logging, milling and other charges, were paid by the company.

Forest Service records state that timber logged at Cripps Bend was sold to Carbondale Veneer, a local logging company, for $18,459.75.

Stan Curtis, owner of Carbondale Veneer, refused to comment.

Neal said when all expenses are considered, Curtis did not really make much of a profit from the sale.

Sometimes they (loggers) even lose money when they spend their time taking out lower quality palate-grade wood, Neal said.

Neal said most of the timber logged at Cripps Bend was high-grade oak and hickory, both hardwoods.

Both sides of the logging issue protesters and Forest Service officials claim what they are doing is in the best interests of the forest and the public. And many environmentalists agree that there is little common ground in sight.

Even with the court rulings, I am not certain the forest will be protected, Wilder-Thomas said. It is important for people to know that we are not just a bunch of crazed hippies. We have a cause, and it’s the forest.

Neal said the service is fighting for the same cause while trying to appease market demand.

Once again, it’s a trade-off, Neal said. We have to think in terms of management and the future. We have to think in terms of a trade-off between goods and services, production and the spiritual experience of the forest.