Carbondale Reporter

The Marion city council received an unusual request and presentation from a community member.

“And Southern Illinois needs help,” John Wallace, representative of Shawnee Forest and Parks Alliance, said during the meeting. “You know, Marion does pretty well probably of all the communities. Marion has thrived the most, or at least sustained. I retired from the city of Carbondale in Carbondaleas just been suffering for ages. And it's not just Carbondale, it's the entire southern Illinois region. But we have something in southern Illinois that we don't have anywhere else in the state or in the region. And it's the Shawnee national forest. We have five different geographic regions that come together in a very small area in between the two rivers which makes this area so unique. And so it's unlike any other place in the country. There are other places with that many different regions, and natural divisions coming together, but not in such small areas as the Shawnee has. And it deserves better recognition, it deserves more attention, and more and more people are coming to the Shawnee.”

The council uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the city’s YouTube channel.

At their March 27th board meeting, city officials from Marion listened to Wallace as he spoke about his group’s desire to have Shawnee turned into a national park and preserve. The Shawnee National Forest is not currently a national park, the national forest distinction means it falls under the authority and regulation of the US National Forest Service, which can log and extract resources from the area. John Wallace and his group want to petition the courts to rename the forest a National Park and Preserve, preventing any further forestry efforts and maintaining the land for generations to come.

The council also discussed quotes it received to install event lighting in the city’s Expo Hall.

Wallace was speaking at the council meeting to ask city officials to sign a resolution in support of this proposal. They wanted to get rid of logging in the area, preserve the forest and prevent further climate damage from carbon emissions during the process and the destruction of natural resources and native species. He felt that Marion could hugely benefit from a National Park in the area, with its proximity to the forest, and the millions of Americans it could draw in from tourism and interest. It would also bring jobs to the area and more federal attention, and there isn’t currently a National Park in the area, with the closest being in Kentucky. Having portions of the forest be a national preserve, the public could still use the forest as they are currently doing in regard to recreation.

The council will meet again at 5:30 p.m. on Monday at the City Hall at 1102 Tower Square Plaza.

The council was amenable to the conversation, as they had heard the opposition to these arguments at the previous council meeting. They were interested in hearing a potential debate or discussion between the two sides, as well as getting more general community input from residents and community members who use the national forest land. Mayor Michael Absher was also interested in getting an outside party’s opinion on the topic. The council made no decisions about the topic but was very eager to continue the conversation from both sides with more input from the parks and forest service as well, with consideration to the fact that the Shawnee stretches across multiple counties.