Effort underway to get Shawnee National Forest a national park designation

People seem to be drawn to Shawnee National Forest and for those unfamiliar it is easy to see why.

Located in Southern Illinois, it is 289,000 acres of magnificent oak-hickory forests, unique geological features, and breathtaking views spanning from the Ohio to the Mississippi rivers.

However, with the right vision and management the forest could be drawing in significantly more visitors, said Les Winkeler, an outdoor guide and retired sports editor from Harrisburg, Illinois.

Winkeler came to the area in 1988 to work as a sportswriter in Harrisburg. “It didn’t take long before the outdoors recreation part of the job became my favorite part,” he said.

That was in no small part because of Shawnee National Forest, as well as the many surrounding state wildlife areas. After retiring from the newspaper several years ago, Winkeler decided to start a small business guiding visitors to photograph nature.

Along the way he became convinced that the Shawnee needed the added protections being a National Park site affords. It’s a designation he says would also be a huge economic boon to Southern Illinois.

Largely abandoned by the coal companies that once ruled the region, Southern Illinois has been left bereft of jobs and economic opportunity in recent years with the coal industry’s irreversible decline.

“Those jobs aren’t coming back,” Winkeler said.

He said the idea first came to him two years ago on a family vacation to the Smokey Mountains and nearby Congaree national parks.

“I thought, you know, Shawnee has a lot more to offer,” he said.

He is a founding member of the Shawnee Park & Climate Alliance, a nonprofit advocating for the forest to be made a national park. In the last two years the group has made its case everywhere from local Rotary Clubs to community festivals building grassroots support.

The campaign has garnered 3,000 signatures supporting the idea, Winkeler said.

Transitioning the Shawnee from management by the Forest Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to that of the National Park Service could be the answer that has eluded Southern Illinois.

There are currently 428 parks in the National Park System. (There are various name designations for the sites, but they are collectively referred to as parks.) New additions are created either through Congressional legislation or Presidential proclamation, said Jordan Fifer, a public affairs specialist for the National Park Service.

To be considered for favorable recommendation as a new park, it must meet the following criteria: Possess nationally significant natural or cultural resources; be a suitable and feasible addition to the National Park System; and require direct National Park Service management instead of protection by other public agencies or the private sector.

Winkeler said the Shawnee meets all of those of criteria, in addition to its wilderness areas and unique geological features such as Garden of the Gods, it is a stop on the Mississippi Flyway, a corridor for migrating birds, including neotropical songbirds passing through from South America.

It also has cultural and historic sites, including: The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and forest sites used in the Underground Railroad, and Iron Furnace and Millstone Bluff Archaeological Site.

Some of its recreational areas include Bell Smith Springs, Garden of the Gods, Pomona Natural Bridge Trail and the 160-mile River-to-River trail from the Ohio to the Mississippi.

There is no waiting list for parks, Fifer said, but there are 86 sites in various stages of study. These include potential new parks and additions to the National Trails System, new National Heritage Areas, and affiliated areas.

Fifer said the study process can take several years or more.

The most recent national park was the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia in December 2020.

Visitation at New River Gorge increased 41 percent from 2018 to 2021, according to the National Park Service. It pulled in 1.7 million visitors in 2021, its first year as a national park.

Indiana Dunes National Park on Lake Michigan and Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky generate hundreds of millions of dollars in visitor spending, according to the National Park Service’s website. Illinois brings in about $9.9 million from sites operated by the park service.

However, the economic impact extends beyond visitor spending, to include the added jobs and investments of both existing and new businesses serving those visitors.

“That is money that is money that is generated without Illinois having to spend a dime,” he said. “Illinois is missing out on a lot of money.”

There are other reasons to make the Shawnee a national park too, said John Wallace, a retired public land manager for the city of Carbondale, Ill.

“The forest brought me here,” Wallace said.

He was living in the St. Louis metropolitan area in 1989 when he first learned about the clear cutting practices the National Forest Service was using to log the Shawnee. Before he knew it he was in the middle of a massive protest against a timber sale in the forest.

“They are cutting the oaks and hickories, and they aren’t coming back,” Wallace said. “Public lands should be managed for the best use for the most people over the long run. Commercial logging only serves the loggers. It doesn’t help those who want to use it for recreation or neighbors. One of the best uses for public land, especially in this part of the country, is for recreation.”

He believes it is essential to preserve as many forests as possible because of their capacity to reduce carbon dioxide and slow the effects of climate change.

Winkeler is hopeful that the Shawnee’s current status as a National Forest might be an advantage in the study process required for becoming a national park.

“Because it is already owned by the federal government, they already know what they have there,” he said.

Fifer said if the proposed park is already federally owned, it would not need to be purchased or donated in the same way other privately owned land would be. However, he said the rest of the process would remain the same as for non-Federal land.

Such a transfer would have to be authorized by Congress, as national forest land has been previously designated for use by the Department of Agriculture.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Is Shawnee National Forest also a national park?