TIMBER CUT SPURS WORRY OVER VIOLENCE

CARTERVILLE, Ill. -- There's "potential for violence" over a controversial plan to begin cutting timber Monday in a section of the Shawnee National Forest, a Southern Illinois congressman said Saturday.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, D-Carterville, voiced the concern at a press conference Saturday afternoon at John A. Logan College.

"My office and my home have been inundated with calls ... from people on both sides of this issue," he said.

"People are calling threatening consequences if the cut takes place, others threatening consequences if it goes the other way.

"Most of them are angry about the whole situation," said Poshard.

"My fear is there's a real potential for violence here, and for this situation getting out of control," the congressman said.

He publicly urged environmentalists and others to refrain from violence.

East Perry Lumber Co. of Frohna plans to begin cutting timber, mostly hardwoods, in the 640-acre Fairview area Monday. The site is near Murphysboro, Ill. The cutting of about 340,000 board feet is expected to take about three weeks.

The area was the scene of demonstrations by environmental groups last year, who protested plans to harvest the timber. Last year's protests included efforts to block a gate leading into an area of the forest where logging roads were to be built.

Environmentalists have said the planned timber cutting will damage the forest environment, a view disputed by officials of the U.S. Forest Service and East Perry Lumber Co.

Environmentalists had gone to the federal courts in efforts to block the planned timber cutting, but those efforts were unsuccessful.

Rod Sallee, Shawnee Forest supervisor with the Forest Service in Harrisburg, Ill., said Saturday he is concerned about the possibility of violence.

"Safety is our first priority," he said. "We have a security plan in place that includes several law enforcement groups."

He did not specify how many law enforcement officers will be involved in the effort to keep protesters out of the logging area.

"The area was secured Friday," said Sallee. East Perry Lumber Co. was called in to cut down five or six trees where "tree-sitting platforms," about 60 feet above the ground, had been constructed.

Sallee said the platforms had apparently been constructed by protesters.

The Forest Service supervisor said his agency has set aside an area near the logging site where demonstrators may assemble. But the actual logging area has been closed to the public, he said.

Sallee said he hopes protesters won't attempt to place metal spikes in trees to prevent the timber cutting. He said such spikes can cause "saws to fly apart" and injure loggers.

One of the environmental groups opposed to the timber cutting is the Shawnee Defense Fund of Brookport, Ill.

Douglas McLura, a spokesman for the Shawnee Defense Fund, said Saturday that he doesn't condone violence. "But I think that people have their backs so much against the wall, it's not surprising that it happens."

He said many Southern Illinois residents are upset by the plan to cut hardwood timber from the Fairview area of the forest. "I know people who are really upset," he said. "It's the kind of upset where people just stop talking."

McLura said he didn't know who had constructed the platforms in the trees. "Normally when people go up into a tree to keep it from being cut, they don't build a tree platform months in advance."

He conceded that protesters are not in a position to really prevent the timber cutting, only call attention to it.

"There is nothing we can do to stop it," he said. "We're asking people to come and protest, and I don't think coming and making a lot of noise is going to save the trees."

McLura said he's also concerned about the possibility of violence, particularly about the possibility that a protester may get hurt.

"Some environmentalist is a lot more likely to end up dead than one of them (law enforcement officers and loggers)," he said.

Brian Unnerstall of East Perry Lumber Co. said he expects some problems from the protesters. But he said the logging work will proceed.

"There will be some problems, but they've got plenty of law enforcement there," he said.

Unnerstall said the job of loggers is dangerous enough without having to worry about protesters. "They (loggers) don't need to be looking over their shoulders."

Both Sallee and Unnerstall said hardwood and softwood trees will be cut. Most of the timber harvest will involve the cutting of oaks within a 125-acre area.

But within that area, trees will be cut individually. Also, groups of trees will be cut in scattered areas, with the cleared areas expected to total about 25 acres in all, they said.

Unnerstall estimated the largest clearings will be probably an acre in size. Sallee said most of the clearings will be less than an acre in size.

About 12 of East Perry Lumber's 100 employees will be involved in the timber cutting, Unnerstall said.

He said the company bought the timber from the Forest Service several years ago at a cost of about $51,000. He said the company has waited long enough to harvest the timber. "We've waited all this time. We're tired of waiting."

But McLura charged that the company wants to proceed with the logging now because Congress had been looking at legislation that "would have essentially made Fairview timber sales illegal."

Unnerstall said the timber cutting not only benefits East Perry Lumber, but also will regenerate the stands of oak in the forest.

""By harvesting it in patches you are allowing sunlight to hit the forest floor. Oak needs full sunlight to grow," he explained. "After we cut the timber, the Forest Service will go in and cut the little maple and beech trees down."

That will leave room for more oak trees to grow, Unnerstall said.

But McLura said that while the area of the timber cutting is only a small part of the 267,000-acre national forest, it is "the last large tract of forest land in Jackson County."

He said the national forest contains 154 species of plants and animals that are listed as endangered or threatened.

Timber cutting, he said, results in forest fragmentation. "What happens when you cut up a forest, you break it into a lot of small pieces."

That leads to an increase in the rate of extinction of species and the soil loses its nutrients, he said. "The forest, it just ceases to be healthy."

Poshard said he discussed the timber-cutting situation with East Perry Lumber Co. and Forest Service officials Friday.

"They both felt they had to go through with the cut," the congressman said.

Poshard quoted East Perry Lumber President Marvin Petzoldt as saying, "We own it. It's ours legally to cut. We've been through the court process and we're simply going to get on with it."