21 Sierrans Float the Saline River

Saline River Watershed. Red arrows indicate approximate locations of canoe launch and take out spots. The “X” marks the approximate location of the tract of land the FS proposes to trade to Peabody Coal for a strip mine.

The 754,942-acre Saline River watershed in far southeastern Illinois has gone from one of the most important historical and geographical features in the region to one of the most abused and under-appreciated watersheds in the entire state. Once a pristine river running through vast forested wetlands the Saline has been turned into an extensively channelized river system that carries pollutants from coal mines, agricultural fields, and even oil extraction.

So why, you might be asking yourself, would 21 people choose to float this seemingly undesirable river on an Illinois Chapter conservation outing? It all started in 2011 when we first heard about a proposed land exchange between the U.S. Forest Service (FS) and Peabody Coal Company. In the proposed exchange the Forest Service would trade a parcel of approximately 384 acres in size on the Saline River in Gallatin County for three tracts of Peabody land, which adjoin FS land in Pope and Jackson Counties. (See Stop the Swap–Go to Bat for the Bats for details.)

Bottomland forested wetlands provide unique habitat and help with flood control.

The reason Peabody wants the Gallatin County parcel is for the coal that lay underneath it. The reason we want to stop the swap is to preserve this beautiful site with its forested wetlands, huge cherrybark oak trees, and habitat for endangered Indiana and gray bats from being strip mined for coal.

After two visits last year we realized a unique and fun way to raise awareness of the situation was to take people to the site. And, since the site straddles both sides of the Saline River, what better way to see it than by canoe?

So, last Saturday, April 13^th, twenty-one paddlers embarked on a canoe float down the final 10 miles of the Saline River. We put in not far from the salt springs that were an important source of salt for Native Americans and early settlers, and took out at the mouth of the Saline at the Ohio River.

A couple miles into the trip we pulled out at the Forest Service parcel to explore on foot. It took a little finessing the muddy, slippery bank but everyone managed to reach dry ground without too much trouble. We took advantage of a large downed log to sit as we ate our lunch before scattering in different directions to explore the site. Although our time on land was limited everyone got to experience a bottomland forest with its large trees and pockets of standing water. We even got to see some wood ducks in one ponded area.

As the elevation rose above the floodplain we started seeing lots of spring wildflowers: bluebell, bloodroot, spring beauty, larkspur, trillium, Dutchman’s breeches, trout lily, Virginia waterleaf, blue phlox and wild ginger to name some, but probably not all.

With another 8 miles to go we hurried back to the canoes and by 2 pm were floating again. Although we did see a lot of agricultural land coming right up to the river’s edge, we also saw a lot of forested land, including another FS tract. During the remainder of the leisurely paddle everyone enjoyed the warmth of the spring sun and the sights and sounds of the wildlife life both in and out of the river. A large bald eagle nest was one of the first things we spotted, but it wasn’t until we neared the Ohio when we saw two adult bald eagles flying over. Wood ducks and belted kingfishers seemed to be around every bend. A barred owl that crossed the river right in front of us and landed in a nearby tree watched intently as we floated by. Migrant songbirds heard along the way included Louisiana waterthrush, blue gray gnatcatcher, northern parula and yellow-throated warbler. And, we got good looks at red-headed, red-bellied and pileated woodpeckers, great blue herons and a green heron.  In addition to a few Asian carp jumping out of the water, several people saw a gar and a paddlefish.

The take-away from the outing was not only the importance of preserving this parcel of public land for the eco-system services it provides to people and critters, but moreover what a tragedy that the Saline has been written off as nothing more than an industrial ditch.

Rather than swap this parcel, perhaps the Forest Service should be partnering with other public agencies and private land trusts to embark on an epic project to restore of one of the most unique and important watersheds in the state.

IDNR Funding Package Goes to Gov Quinn!!

Today the Illinois Senate approved legislation (SB1566) to provide desperately needed funding for Illinois’ state parks and conservation efforts. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has been devastated over the last decade by severe cuts to their budget and payroll, leaving them stretched beyond capacity.

We applaud the terrific work of the lead sponsors of the legislation, House Deputy Majority Leader Frank Mautino and State Senator Toi Hutchinson, in building support for this new funding. We also thank Governor Quinn and IDNR Director Marc Miller for their efforts to rebuild the Department and win the confidence of bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate for this legislation.

We count on the IDNR to provide safe, quality outdoor recreation experiences that improve our quality of life and boost local economies, to protect our water supplies, and watch out for the health of our environment. With new, sustainable funding, the professionals at IDNR will continue to do their critical work, and us and future generations to enjoy Illinois’ great outdoors.

Find out how your Senator voted here.

RALLY FOR STARVED ROCK

Join us October 28th as we continue our fight to save Starved Rock State Park!

For more information, visit our site dedicated to fighting sand mining at Starved Rock State Park!

Water Issues Targeted at this Year’s Illinois Hunting and Fishing Day Celebrations

This year’s National Hunting and Fishing Day Celebrations in northern and southern Illinois were a great opportunity for Illinois Chapter Sierra Club staff and volunteers to engage the public on many water-centric issues in Illinois. Armed with buttons, stickers, flyers, and fact sheets our volunteers and staff cast their lines and reeled in a sizable audience to discuss the difficulties of keeping our Illinois waters happy and healthy.

At the Northern Illinois show, Sierra Club staff largely focused on the increasingly pressing issue of the Asian carp, which are slowly-yet-surely advancing up the Illinois River towards Lake Michigan. We were particularly delighted to meet so many young fisherwomen and men who were very knowledgeable about the problem. Attendees were interested to hear about the Sierra Club’s support of permanent separation between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins via our Healthy Water Solutions (HWS) coalition, and were very concerned about the inevitable consequences if the Asian carp successfully enter the Lakes.  We were excited to garner additional support for our coalition, and to raise public awareness of aquatic invasive species problematic throughout the state (visit the coalition website for more information).

High-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for oil and gas was the focus of the Club’s booth at the Southern Illinois event. Fracking, which is poised to take place across much of downstate Illinois, poses threats to fresh water at every stage of operation. Over 150 people showed their support for the Club’s position on fracking by signing a postcard to their legislator asking him/her to support a moratorium on fracking to allow the Department of Natural Resources time to review the environmental impacts of fracking and the state time to review, develop and establish potential regulations that will adequately safeguard our water and environment.

Many thanks to all the people who stopped by our booths in northern and southern Illinois and showed support for clean water and a healthy environment for our families, our wildlife and our future.

Hydraulic Fracturing Background Information

Industry is proposing to use high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing to reach oil and/or natural gas in the New Albany Shale. After drilling into the shale, which is located between 4,000 to 5,000 feet down, the well bore is then drilled horizontally for up to a mile. Following the drilling the well is then “completed” or “fracked.” Fracking is process in which water, sand and toxic chemicals (fracking fluid) are injected into the well at high pressure to create small cracks in the rock that allow natural gas to freely flow to the surface.

Each well uses between 2 to 8 million gallons of fresh water taken from our lakes and aquifers. Since one well is often fracked up to 18 times and there could be one well for every forty acres of land within the New Albany Shale, this amounts to an enormous quantity of fresh water taken out of the system.

Additionally, an estimated 30% to 70% of the fracking fluid will resurface, bringing back with it toxic substances that are naturally present in underground oil and gas deposits, as well as the chemicals used in the fracking fluid. Industry is proposing to store this toxic brew in open evaporation pits until it can be hauled away in tanker trucks to deep injection wells. Spills and leaks throughout this process are inevitable, putting wells, farm ponds, streams, lakes, and aquifers and the people, pets, livestock and wildlife that use them at great risk.

In some areas, after a well has been fracked, people’s well water has become contaminated by chemicals (some radioactive) that migrate into aquifers through natural fissures and/or possibly through abandoned wells.

Hackmatack! A Dream Come True…

This gallery contains 2 photos.

  “Nothing happens unless first a dream.”                                         -Carl Sandburg About eight years ago, Friends of Hackmatack adopted this quote as … Continue reading →

Showdown Day In Springfield for IDNR

An update from IDNR Marc Miller heading into the final day of the Spring legislative session.

New National Wildlife Refuge Recommended for Illinois-Wisconsin Border

Sierra Club Inner City Outing to Hackmatack Area, September 2011. Photo courtesy of Dan Deters.

Spring brings good news to Illinois and Wisconsin!

US Fish & Wildlife Service's recommended refuge

Today the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recommends the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge be established in McHenry County, IL and Walworth County, WI.

The Fish & Wildlife Service proposes a refuge which would link with and expand on existing lands already protected by the McHenry County Conservation District and Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources.  Their aim is to provide large blocks of habitat for migratory birds and endangered species including declining grassland birds like Dickcissel, Henslow’s sparrow and short-eared owl which nest in restored prairies, the savanna-loving red-headed woodpecker, and wetland-dependent species like the least bittern, pied-billed grebe and the federally endangered Whooping crane. Core blocks of habitat would be linked by corridors which would allow migration of small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants in the face of a changing climate.

The Hackmatack refuge would be the closest refuge to the Chicago, Rockford and Milwaukee metro areas, fitting nicely with the USFWS’s policy to establish refuges easily accessible to people living in urban areas. Hackmatack is a Native American word for the tamarack tree, rare this far south, but found within the proposed refuge’s boundaries.

The Fish & Wildlife Service is soliciting public comment through April 27 on their Environmental Assessment that evaluates and recommends establishment of the refuge. Detailed information can be found at the USFWS website. Two open house events to learn more about and submit comments on Service’s recommendation will be held on:

•Tuesday, April 3 from 5 to 8 PM at Lost Valley Visitor Center in Glacial Park, Route 31 and Harts Road, Ringwood IL

•Wednesday, April 4 from 5 to 8 PM at Brookwood Middle School, 1020 Hunter’s Ridge Drive, Genoa City WI

Sierra Club has made it easy to send the USFWS an email in support of the refuge.  Go Hackmatack! 

Emanuel Shoots Down Gun Range Near Eagles’ Nests

Statement of Christine Williamson
Chair, Sierra Club, Chicago Group

“Sierra Club is thrilled and gratified by Mayor Emanuel’s decision to withdraw support for locating a new police firing range too near important and sensitive wetland habitat in the Lake Calumet region.

Mayor Emanuel’s decision will allow a variety of bird species, including nesting bald eagles, to flourish in this vital habitat right here in the City of Chicago. These wetlands are part of the proposed Millennium Reserve, which will allow visitors to experience their natural beauty. Now visitors to the Reserve and residents of nearby neighborhoods will be able to have a true urban wildlife experience, rather than hearing gunfire.”

Stop the Swap–Go to Bat for the Bats

How ironic that during the Year of the Bat, the Shawnee National Forest would propose a land exchange in which the Forest Service would trade away a 384-acre tract of land with a known endangered bat species to Peabody Coal, Co. for a strip mine! An Indiana bat maternity roost was found on the parcel and the endangered gray bat was also detected there.

A diamond in the rough, the Gallatin County parcel is one of the Shawnee’s best-kept secrets. Located just a few miles south of Shawneetown on the Saline River, it takes only one visit to this beautiful piece of land to know that it is providing critical habitat in a part of the state that has seen more than its fair share of human disturbance.

“The single-most important factor that leads to endangerment and extinction of species– and the one the Forest Service has the greatest influence over—is the alteration and loss of habitats.” US Forest Service, Threatened, Endangered & Sensitive Species Program.

In the proposed exchange the Forest Service would trade a parcel of approximately 384 acres in size for three tracts of ALH land, which adjoin FS land in Pope and Jackson Counties.

The federal parcel is entirely forested with bottomland and upland hardwoods, including swamp chestnut oak, American elm, red maple, sweetgum, maple, ash, tulip tree and the Forest’s largest and highest quality cherrybark oaks. It’s rare to find such a diverse bottomland forest habitat within the Saline River watershed, which is constantly being bombarded with clearing, mining, ditching and draining. Canoeist and anglers enjoy recreating in this section of the Saline River, while hikers, bird watchers and hunters enjoy the beautiful woodland.

The natural wonders alone should be ample reason for the Forest Service to hang on to this parcel, but the discovery of federally-endangered Indiana and gray bats should stop the swap. This past summer, gray bats were detected and one Indiana bat maternity roost was found on the site and 2 more maternity sites were found on FS land very near by. These are the only known Indiana bat maternity roosts known on the eastern half of the Forest.

The proposed land swap is in complete violation of the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act requires the Forest Service to “use all methods and procedures which are necessary” to preserve endangered species. The Forest Service is required by law to give the highest priority to the protection and recovery of endangered species.

The Shawnee National Forest is seeking scoping comments on this proposal to swap land-for-land with American Land Holdings (ALH), a subsidiary of Peabody Coal, Co. Let your voice  be heard–take action here!

LaSalle County Board Approves Starved Rock Sand Pit

January 12, 2012 – The LaSalle County Board today approved an application for a massive open pit sand mine next to Starved Rock State Park, despite objections from local residents and a growing outcry from citizens across the state who had urged the County to protect Starved Rock, prime farmland, and local residents from the impacts of the project.

“We’re very disappointed that LaSalle County has put Starved Rock at risk.  There are many places to mine sand, but there is only one Starved Rock,” said Jack Darin, Director of the Sierra Club, Illinois Chapter.

The mine site includes a state-recognized natural area, and would be adjacent to Starved Rock State Park.  The mine would pump millions of gallons of water per day for its operations, and those withdrawals threaten springs and marshlands within the Park.   In addition, water pollution from mine operations could drain through the Park, its ravines, and canyons, which are an important outdoor recreation asset for Illinois. Over two million people each year visit the state park, which recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of its protection.

Despite strong opposition from local residents and thousands of comments against the mine from around Illinois, the County Board appeared to give minimal consideration to concerns about the project.

“I am saddened and angered that the LaSalle County Board failed to recognize that Starved Rock is an important economic engine for the area. Instead they have jeopardized existing tourism jobs for a few new ones that promise to pollute our air and water while degrading the experience for all Starved Rock visitors,” said Tracy Fox, a Sierra Club member who attended today’s county board meeting.

In the wake of LaSalle County’s approval, the project now must be approved by state agencies that will examine the mine’s impacts on water quality, archeological resources, natural areas, and the state park.

“The fight to protect Starved Rock from this open pit mine is far from over,” said Darin.   “Starved Rock is one of Illinois’ most special places, and citizens across the state are rallying to protect it.”