Yesterday a court hearing was held in Mound City, Illinois, at the Pulaski County courthouse regarding the "Diehl Dam" on the "Lower Cache River." The Illinois Dept. of Natural is seeking an injuction keeping the Big Creek Drainage District from removing the "Diehl Dam."

In actuality, after the expiration of a lengthy court agreement several months ago, the drainage district did remove the dam after receiving complaints from a local landowner that owns land on the banks of the swamp that the sustained, unfluctuating water levels were killing hardwood trees on his property. The IDNR, according to statements in court, entered private property at night, without a permit that underwent public scrutiny, and replaced the dam. The drainage district said that they were going to remove it, and the IDNR is seeking an injunction to stop the drainage district from removing it.

The hearing really just had gotten going when it was adjourned. It is to take up in the morning. I intend to be there. I will let you know what happens. I've written about the cache river before, in a story published on counterpunch.com. http://www.counterpunch.org/donham04272005.html

This is a complicated issue of mixed environmental effects combined with local vs. centralized control of public resources that affect private lands. I believe this will end up in the Illinois supreme court, but just for the heck of it, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict, based on the couple hours I listened to yesterday, that the drainage district will win in the lower court. How it ends up eventually I have no idea. But it is an interesting case that deserves attention from everyone who is interested in public land. The cache river wetlands have been featured in National Geographic as being internationally significant. I'll let you know what happens.