After the settlement agreement actually got signed, the main goal of RACE was to fight the "interim timber sales" which were provided for in the settlement agreement. But it was a real David vs. Goliath. Not only did we have the Forest Service, one of the largest agencies in the nation, against us, but we had our former ally, the Sierra Club against us also.

In fact, the Sierra Club was touting the agreement as the best thing since sliced bread. At the time, Kristi and I were Sierra Club members, and so after the Chapter newspaper came out proclaiming the settlement agreement as basically saving the Shawnee national forest, I wrote a letter to editor of their publication pointing out that the settlement agreement wasn't perfect - that it in fact included the "interim timber sales," as well as other things that were less than good. Unfortunately, that letter was never printed in their paper.

Ironically, years later, at a meeting at Jean Graber's between Kristi and I and Sierra Club negotiation Jim Bensman at the Graber's Warbluff farm (before it became the Audubon Sanctuary) - a reconciliation meeting leading up to RACE and Sierra Club becoming co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the new plan arising out of the settlement agreement - I brought up to Bensman the fact that my letter had never run in the Sierra Club paper even though we were members, and he opened up his briefcase and produced the original letter - which had been hand written. He admitted being the main censorer of the letter.

RACE was moving forward with their work, however, regardless of the Sierra Club's position on it. This is where RACE obtained the one page environmental assessments, Finding of No Significant Impacts, and Decision Notices, which were identical year after year, except for a different list of timber sales that were going to be sold on the Shawnee that year. We had learned enough about environmental law to know that this was bogus. We thought that this might be an avenue for us to challenge the "interim timber sales."

In the meantime, a movement arose out of Pope County totally unrelated to us which was opposing the hardwood clearcuts on the Shawnee. Two men, Steve Hudson, who is currently a county commissioner in Pope County, and Kendall Buchanan, a horse back riding advocate, were the leaders of this movement. Like most of us, they had had one of their favorite areas, Reddick Hollow, clearcut badly. Other places were scheduled. Kristi and I met with them numerous times to discuss strategy and to let them know what we were doing.

RACE basically picked up on their petition, and one of our strategies became to go to county boards in the Shawnee counties and try to get a resolution passed opposing clearcutting on the Shawnee. There was a lot of consternation in the rural counties about the Forest Service, and very few people liked the large clearcuts in mature hardwood forests. It was a drag on the counties anyway - logging trucks using rural roads wears them out faster, without a doubt, a bill the county had to pick up. If the roads got too bad or scenic areas got messed up, fewer people would come to the counties to visit, and local businesses would be the ones hurt from that.

We thought we could get resolutions opposing clearcutting from a number of these county boards in the counties which contained Shawnee National Forest, and we did. A resolution from the Pope County board doesn't phase the Forest Service in the least. And one from Hardin or Alexander Counties didn't phase them either. And resolutions from all 3 of those counties wouldn't do much phasing of the Forest Service. So while we were picking up positive press on what was a grassroots movement, which was helping us overcome a campaign by the Forest Service and industry to paint us all as radicals - outside the mainstream, we weren't anywhere near budging the Forest Service.

In addition, these same county boards would not have approved a resolution that said that there should be no timber sales, even of hardwoods, on the Shawnee. Most of them were quick to say that "selective" logging was ok. At one time, although rarely, logging revenues on the Shawnee kicked up federal government payments to the counties. Some commissioners thought, erroneously in my opinion, that the logging receipts were good for the counties, and supported logging on the Shawnee. But, at the same time, they did not support clearcutting. RACE thought that clearcutting was the immediate issue, and our initial advocacy focused on stopping that.

We did get the Forest Service's attention, though, when, after getting a number of resolutions, maybe 4 or 5, from rural county boards, we approached the Jackson County board. This was the home of Southern Illinois University, which had a forestry department that was squarely with the loggers, and they didn't want to see the county board pass a resolution opposing clearcutting, because they were still trying to sell the idea that clearcutting the forest was good for it. In reality, I think that what they were doing was supporting a revenue stream that was used to hire graduates from their forestry school - and one of the most reliable up to that point was the Forest Service's timber sales program.

In any case, it became very contentious. Many important professors on our side, like Dr. Paul Yambert, and Dr. Robert Mohlenbrock, wrote letters supporting us. The resolution had to go through the Jackson County board's committee structure, and slowly but surely it passed it's way through the board, and then passed the whole board. It was a major victory for us, and the Forest Service knew their plans were in trouble.

At the same time, we had discovered that in the past, all of these timber sales had been approved with the one page environmental assessments, finding of no significant impacts, and decision notices, accompanied by a list of sales which was changed every year. I believe that we wrote the Forest Service a letter asking them to reopen these analysis because of new information. They had to be nervous, but they resisted.

But one day we were contacted by an attorney in Benton, Illinois. I can't remember how the contact was first made, but he was interested in what we were doing. His name was James Wood, and he had an office, with a partner - I can't remember his name, but Mr. Woods referred good humoredly to he and his partner as "the democrat and the republican" in that order. He had an office on the 2nd floor of the Wood building on the corner of the square in Benton. I know that over the years, there has been on ongoing movement to save that building because of its historical significance, but I don't know what the current status is. The building certainly played a part in all of this.

We convinced Mr. Woods to write a letter, on his letterhead, to the Regional Office, pointing out that these one page EAs, FONSI's and DNs were bogus, and that all of the outstanding timber sales approved with these documents should be withdrawn. I think there were 10 or so sales. This scared the hell out of the Forest Service, because they were operating so illegally. Unfortunately, Mr. Woods name inadvertantly got given to the press (not by me, but by one of us) and it ended up in print. He had asked that for now to be kept out of the press, and he dropped us because of that. However, his arrow was already in flight, and it hit it's target perfectly.
To Be Continued