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OpinionApril 19, 1995

An environmentalist bent on halting logging in the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois has come up with a new tactic: Turn the forest into a national monument to protect migratory songbirds. It is a ridiculous notion. There are only 73 spots that have earned the select designation as a national monument. Many are places you know: George Washington's birthplace, Death Valley and the Statue of Liberty. Shawnee National Forest and its songbirds don't belong in that grouping...

An environmentalist bent on halting logging in the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois has come up with a new tactic: Turn the forest into a national monument to protect migratory songbirds.

It is a ridiculous notion. There are only 73 spots that have earned the select designation as a national monument. Many are places you know: George Washington's birthplace, Death Valley and the Statue of Liberty. Shawnee National Forest and its songbirds don't belong in that grouping.

Jan Wilder-Thomas of the Shawnee Defense Fund says taxpayer money should be use for replanting, instead of marking trees, preparing timber sales, environmental assessments and building logging roads. She wants all logging stopped in the 263,000-acre national forest. The problem with environmentalists is that they want everything their way. This all-or-nothing attitude just doesn't make sense anymore.

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The fact is there are more trees now than there has ever have been. The government and logging companies have a remarkable history of replanting efforts.

Cutting timber is not the only thing that affects songbirds. Where do you draw the line? Do we ban humans from walking the hiking trails in the forest? Do we outlaw hunters? A songbird expert suggests a greater danger is the loss of forest patches to farm fields and pastures. Do we outlaw farms?

This monument designation push is nothing more than a gimmick, and surely Southern Illinois legislators will see it as such.

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