Environmentalists showed their side of the Cripps Bend story to the public yesterday when a tour organized by SIUC students brought several dozen visitors to see the controversial logging site first-hand.

Members of the SIUC Student Environmental Center advertised the tour Saturday by handing out flyers, and early Sunday afternoon those interested drove or were driven to the site.

John Wallace, a member of the Natural Forest Network from Makanda, said a group of about 35 students and members of the Carbondale community came to tour the logging site.

Advertisement

Wallace, who led one of two groups of visitors, said he felt the tour was a success and wants to prove to as many of the public as possible that the timber sale is far larger than the U.S. Forest Service is saying.

I’m tired of hearing the seven-acre figure over and over, he said. There are 20 to 30 acres being logged out here.

Kristen Kordecki, another protester who guided the tour, said although the cutting at Cripps Bend is said to be selective, the roads cut through the forest create swaths eroding earth without any growth.

We will lose twice as many trees as they cut for the roads because of erosion, she said. We have already seen trees fall into the road because the soil has been washed from their roots.

Kordecki, a senior in elementary education, showed the group a stack of trunks at the landing, where the cut trees are brought.

These are the dead bodies, she said. They leave the tops behind, and the dried wood creates a fire hazard.

She said many of the visitors were shocked to see first-hand the damage done to both the smaller trees in the cutting area and the protective canopy of mature trees sheltering the saplings and undergrowth.

Advertisement*

These young trees won’t live, she said. Without a canopy above them they are directly exposed to pounding rain, then the direct sunlight evaporates the moisture quickly, drying the soil until nothing can grow. A lot of people couldn’t believe the destruction, she said. They were completely disgusted that these trees will become tables.

Wallace said those who want to show support for stopping the cutting should write their senators, state representatives, and even the President.

Unfortunately, the environment alone doesn’t mean much to many politicians, he said. But tax money does, and timber sales not only lose money, they destroy natural resources. There is no reason for doing that.