Does the DE staff ever check references? Does the term research mean anything to you? Or are you the biased flunkies of a publicity-starved group of local bullies? I dare you to find a single fact to back up your statements. 15,000 acres lost? Did the DE lose them? Since 1990, 10,000 acres have been to the Shawnee. Untouched? The DE must be touched because 80% of the original purchase units were abandoned, eroded farmland- the lands nobody wanted- which Nature and the Forest Service brought back to forest. The worst was the reference to the long-term economics of the Southern Illinois region. Well-managed timber harvesting is a cornerstone to improving regional economic strength and stability. Hopefully your absurd remark was out in just to see if readers were paying attention; otherwise it is indicative of blithering idiocy.

From time to time the DE contains errors, thus the accuracy desk. This affront to intelligence promotes intellectual decay, and discredits this University. For the sake of SIUC, Southern Illinois, and the Shawnee, get out and do something responsible, like covering facts, not fiction ghost-writers.

Matt Gramse, forestry graduate

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