Problems arise with removing these trees, however, because holes in the shade will allow non-native weedy plants that have already invaded the forest to thrive in the new sunlight, Roth said.

These species, such as Japanese Honeysuckle and Creeping Euonymus, inhibit the regeneration of the oaks, Roth said.

He said the proposed plan also calls for the removal of some of these exotic species to keep them from taking over the woods, and planting oaks in the lighted areas left behind.

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SIUC plant biology professor Phillip Robertson, chair of the management committee, said a plan to preserve the woods needs to be implemented soon.

If the administration doesn’t jump on this with a major commitment, we’re going to lose it (the woods), he said. It will look a lot worse in five years than it does now.

Roth said maple and beech trees in the area also stifle the growth of the oaks needed to maintain the woods because they produce shade in which oaks cannot grow.

He said upland oak forests often become dominated by the other trees when Mother Nature does not disturb the area with a wind storm or fire.

Robertson said it is not unnatural to keep the maple and beech trees from taking over Thompson Woods.

It’s an isolated, small area, he said. Before it was settled, nature would probably have disturbed the area. People prevent that from happening.

Student input on the issue was sought during the spring of 1994 when the committee distributed a questionnaire asking students what they wanted to be done with the forest.

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Robertson said most responses supported leaving the woods alone or maintaining it as an old-growth forest.

Ralph Thompson, a 1934 SIUC graduate who with his brother sold a portion of the woods to the state in 1946, said he is dismayed by the condition of the woods.

I’m distressed by it, he said. I’m heartily in favor of a management plan.

Some students are more wary of the plan.

Kenneth Petersen Boe, an unclassified graduate student from Carbondale, said he supports removing the non-native plant species, but is not in favor of taking any trees out of the forest.

Woods should have an element of danger in them. I think taking trees out (for safety) just shows we’re over-pampered, he said.