FOREST CHIEF EARNES JEERS AND CHEERS

GRAND TOWER, Ill. -- The U.S. Forest Service chief received cheers and jeers on his visit to Southern Illinois Thursday.

F. Dale Robertson was in Southern Illinois for the dedication of a cooperative waterfowl wetland habitat enhancement project at Oakwood Bottoms Greentree Reservoir located near here.

He drew cheers from the more than 100 people who attended the dedication.

The jeers came from a small group of people representing Earth First! and the Shawnee Forest Defense Fund, groups which have been protesting timber cuts in the Shawnee National Forest for more than a year.

Although the protest group attempted to disrupt the dedication meeting several times with yells of "stop the cut," and "Sallee (Shawnee Forest Supervisor) must go," it wasn't until the dedication program was over that Robertson addressed timber cutting during a news conference.

"All you have to do is stop the cut today," said Jan Wilder Thomas, a member of the Shawnee Defense Fund, in reference to the timber sale in the Fairview area of the Shawnee Forest. "Sen. (Glenn) Poshard and (Sen.) Paul Simon are against the cut."

Robertson explained that he would not stop the cutting, and that the Poshard petition did not request that timber cutting be stopped.

"I received the letter and petition from Sen. Poshard," said Robertson. "They were not calling for an end to timber sales in the Shawnee Forest. "They asked that all pending timber sales be postponed until our Land and Resource Management planning process is completed."

Robertson added that Poshard, Simon and the other 20 members of the Illinois congressional delegation who signed the petition were concerned that Shawnee timber sales had lost money during the past year.

"We have a management plan for the Shawnee National Forest that meets a wide variety of needs," said Robertson. "While I am here, I will be looking at harvest sites. I'll take my findings back to Washington. We won't make any hasty decisions, but we will look at all the information."

Robertson said he didn't want to see the forest lose money on timber sales, but "there are some cases where the benefits will outweigh financial losses, like converting an area from pine trees to hardwood forests.

"Our overall forest management plans are a product of a lot of public input and discussion," said Robertson. "I think we have a balanced approach that will keep our forest lands as multi-use forests that meet the needs of everyone concerned. As far as the Fairview cut is concerned, I just don't see any reason to stop it. It's an approved sale."

Thomas said the Earth First! and Shawnee Defense groups would do everything they could to "hold the line" at the Fairview area, which is scheduled to be cut.

"This is critical habitat," said Thomas. "Any cutters will enter the area at their own risk."

When asked at "what risk," Thomas said she didn't know, and declined further comment.

When cutters went into the Fairview area last year, they found that several trees had been "spiked" with large nails and steel spikes had been driven into at least two dozen trees. Spiking can cause damage to sawmill equipment. Earth First! denied any knowledge of the spiking.

Robertson, John Walker, Ducks Unlimited national president; Rodney Sallee, Shawnee National Forest supervisor; Jeff Ver Steeg, Illinois Department of Conservation Wildlife Resource Division; and James Jordan of Milwaukee, Wis., Eastern Region Forest supervisor, were among the speakers at the dedication of the first phase of water conservation work in the 3,400-acre Oakwood Bottoms.

"This is the largest waterfowl improvement project that we have going now," said Robertson. "It is a cooperative venture among Ducks Unlimited, Illinois Department of Conservation and the Forest Service. I am pleased that we have completed this first phase, which includes pumps, floodgates and water control measures for more than 30 100-acre parcels.

"With this system, we can control the water depth throughout the bottoms," said Robertson. "The situation is ideal for mallards, pintails, and other species of ducks."

(See related story, Page 3B)