CONGRESSMEN SEEK HALT TO TIMBER SALES FOR NOW

CARTERVILLE, Ill. -- A united Illinois congressional delegation led by U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, D-Carterville, has asked the U.S. Forest Service to temporarily suspend timber sales in the Shawnee National Forest.

Twenty-two members of the congressional delegation recently sent a letter to F. Dale Robertson, head of the forest service, requesting that timber activity be halted until the public has a chance to comment on a new Land and Resource Management Plan. The plan, which has been in the drafting and appeal stages for five years, is close to being finalized.

An amendment to the plan delineates various limits regarding the cutting of timber, ranging all the way from zero to 14 or 15 million board feet a year, Poshard said.

The public comment period will start around April 1 and last for three months. Informational meetings will be held in the area as part of the process of obtaining public input, Poshard said.

The public input, he said, will be considered by the forest service in deciding on what limits to impose on timber cutting in the Shawnee National Forest.

The congressman said he has asked East Perry Lumber Co. of Frohna, Mo., not to go in and harvest trees in the 661-acre Fairview area of the national forest.

"At this point in time, it would create a lot of bad will and a lot of heightened controversy," he said.

Poshard said he has not received a reply from the lumber company.

"There is tremendous opposition in this area to below-cost timber sales," said Poshard.

The Illinois congressman said he welcomed the support of the fellow members of the state's congressional delegation.

"It adds weight to my view that we should hold our horses until the public has its say on how the Shawnee is managed," Poshard said.

The letter to Robertson cites on-going losses in the Shawnee National Forest's timber program.

Poshard said the forest service lost $1.1 million on timber sales in 1990. That followed losses of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in each of the previous three years, the congressman said.

The losses are the result of expenses on the part of the forest service, such as building roads in the forest and other activities associated with preparing an area for timber cutting, explained Poshard.

The national forest, said Poshard, "is a very valuable natural resource and one that belongs to the people."

He said: "The public is rightly concerned about losing precious resources and millions of dollars at the same time. "The whole purpose of the forest management planning process is to give the public some say-so."