Camped in the Cripps Bend area of the Shawnee National Forest, environmentalists say they are ready to stand their ground against a logging company which plans to clear-cut seven acres of the forest.

Upon learning that Judge Phil Gilbert denied a motion by local environmentalist, Bill Cronin, to halt logging in Cripps Bend, about 25 protesters flocked to the logging site Tuesday night to oppose the operation.

Kristen Kordecki, one of the protestors and a member of Shawnee Earth First, said demonstrators will inhibit logging progress by camping at the site.

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We are here to prevent, to stop Stan Curtis (the owner of the logging company) from coming, Kordecki, a senior in elementary education from Hanover Park, said. We are here to make it difficult for the loggers to prevent the rape and destruction of the land.

Kordecki said she and other SIUC students who are participating in the protest have been driving back and forth between the protest site and campus, balancing class with their cause.

Jan Wilder-Thomas, a protester from Puducah, Ky., said the group’s opposition to the logging is also a protest against the clear-cutting of other Illinois forests.

The cause is the effort to save what is left of an old-growth forest in Illinois, Wilder-Thomas said. Illinois’ only national forest is being ripped apart by a government agency with no sense. It’s strictly machine driven by the timber industry through our representatives and senators in Congress.

Wilder-Thomas likened fallen trees in an area of Cripps Bend which has already been cut to corpses.

This is the murder trail, she said, referring to a path in the forest created by logging trucks. This is where they drag the dead bodies (trees).

Jim Reh, a protester who is affiliated with several envrionmental groups including Shawnee Audubon, said Curtis has much to consider before he begins cutting trees at Cripps Bend.

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I want to talk to Stan Curtis and find out whether his personal economic gain is worth the value, the ecological value, of these forests, Reh said.

Most protesters agreed that any economic gain from logging the Cripps Bend area would not outweigh the beauty and natural habitat that the section of forest provides.

Kordecki said she and other protesters are prepared to stay in Cripps Bend a long time to preserve the area’s aesthetic qualities.

As long as it takes, Kordecki said.