Balancing act on the Shawnee - management of the Shawnee National Forest - includes related article on snake migration at the Shawnee National Forest's Winters Pond

American Forests, Jan-Feb, 1993 by Pamela Selbert

Once-blighted land now largely renewed, this Illinois forest has a new mandate for more sensitive management.

Shawnee National Forest--nearly 270,000 acres of flatland prairie, rolling bluegreen hills, and sandstone bluffs--marks the nubby fingers of southern Illinois like a fat jade ring. The forest is as diverse as the uses included in a new Forest Service management plan that protects endangered species, provides a home for migratory songbirds, and restores the Shawnee's original ecosystem while allowing for some commercial use.

Shawnee's diverse and scenic regions, bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and by east-west Illinois Highway 13, were gathered under the umbrella of "national forest" more than 50 years ago. Groups such as the Izaak Walton League were clamoring for more forestland in the state, and Illinois' southern tip was a candidate. Trees on the once-densely carpeted land had been wantonly chopped for more than a century; land suitable only for tree crops had been cleared for generally unsuccessful farming.

The economy in the region made land cheap and easy for the government to buy. Many farms had been abandoned or were failing badly. Southern Illinois, which had been heavily mined for coal from just after the turn of the century until the mid-1920s, suffered when consumers turned to other forms of power. Proponents of a national forest for Illinois theorized that management of land, water, and wildlife could improve economic conditions.

The tract chosen was a wooded glacial moraine first inhabited by Indians about 11,000 years ago, more recently by the hunting Shawnee tribe, and, in the late 18th century, by European settlers. It was used largely for row-crop farming and fruit growing, albeit unsuccessfully, and less than half was covered by forest, mainly mixed hardwoods. By the time the national-forest plans were underway, the trees were being cut only for making railroad ties, fruit and vegetable boxes, and farm posts, none of it very profitable. Fields and woodlots were burned annually, encouraging soil erosion.

In 1931, Illinois passed legislation that virtually invited the federal government to establish a national forest in the area. Funds were not immediately available, but a barrage of pleas from individuals and civic groups over the next two years caught the government's attention. Shawnee would be among the first national forests to be created under a $20-million federal appropriation.

Within a year of the establishment of "purchase units" to enable the federal government to buy land, the ground was sprouting telephone poles and fire towers, and roads and bridges were under construction. Trees were replanted in clearcut areas, and picnic grounds and campgrounds appeared. A 6,000-acre agricultural center, managed by the University of Illinois, taught farmers to take better care of their land.

The land, which sold for the rock-bottom price of $1 to $3 an acre, was proclaimed Shawnee National Forest in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Since then the government has continued to add to Shawnee's total acreage.

Over the years it has become a major tourist attraction in southern Illinois. The dramatic landscape is webbed with hiking routes such as six-mile Beaver Trail that winds through the hills, crosses an earthen dam, then rims the shoreline of Pounds Hollow Lake. From the trail hikers survey the wonders of Garden of the Gods, where a gray, humpbacked bluff stands like a lone dromedary among stone sentinels.

At Mermet Lake a cypress swamp bristles with the knobby knees of deciduous conifers. Cedar Lake's underwater rocky ledges undulate through translucent waters. These and other lakes re popular with swimmers.

Glen and Carolyn Schaeffer of St. Louis and their two children, Tim, 10, and Christine, 13, are frequently day-visitors to Shawnee, and spend many summer weekend afternoon swimming in the 2,400-acre Lake Kinkaid. "The sand beach is as pretty as you'll find anywhere," Carolyn said. "The water's clean, and it's never so crowded as to be unpleasant."

And Tim Schaeffer, a dedicated fisherman, enjoys catching catfish or bluegills at nearby children-only Smokey Bear Lake.

Biking is a good way to see Shawnee's abundance of Canada geese, wild turkeys, songbirds, whitetail deer, and other wildlife.

Despite the seemingly pristine stillness that can drape Shawnee like a mist, there are areas that the Forest Service allows to be harvested for timber. Until recently, that meant trees could be "managed" in 60 percent of the forest. But the new management plan, recently approved by the U.S. Secretary Agriculture, has brought sweeping changes.

When the plan was first presented, about 7,500 individuals, organizations, and agencies responded during a public comment period, according to Tom , public-affairs officer for the Forest Service. The plan was amended "to achieve the best balance" among all interests, and appears to have been well received, he said.

Among the changes: "The timber emphasis is no longer there," Hagerty said. The forest's timber base has been reduced to about 22 percent, and no more than 3.4 million board-feet of "sale quality" hardwood trees can be cut over the next 10 years. As of March 1992, no trees will be harvested within a 200-foot strip of land along any of Shawnee's perennial streams. This helps prevent erosion in riparian areas while protecting the habitats of nesting species, mostly nongame birds, and bats. A migration corridor of uncut trees will be left for the birds.