POPE COUNTY, IL (WSIL) -- Groups trying to change Shawnee National Forest to a National Park aren’t new.
“The people pushing for this tried the same thing back in 1995,� said Cricket Simons, National Director for Back Country Horsemen.
Back Country Horsemen-Illinois reformed about five years ago and since then they’ve grown to more than 100 with a mission statement of trying to better the landscape.
“Our group here in Illinois for the last several years, we do approximately 3,000 volunteer hours a year working on trails,� Simons said.
So it’s no surprise, that Simons and Back Country Horsemen are against the switch for Shawnee National Forest into a National Park.
“The main thing is restriction and fee,� he said. “When you go to a national park, you pay a fee. Everybody goes through the gate and pays for it. You don't pay any fees in the National Forest�
Simons points out another big difference is in who runs the national parks.
“National Parks are very restrictive even the campgrounds and all that stuff, they're owned by the Parks Department,� said Simons. “They're run by vendors. Vendors are all worried about making a dollar. �
One of the biggest economic impacts for Southern Illinois is hunting, which is done in Shawnee National Forest. Simons says if it’s changed to a park, hunting at Shawnee will be no more.
“There's no hunting in a national park at all,� he stressed.
Simons knows that people who support the transition to a national park will try and tout tourism as a big factor, but he says tourism isn’t an issue.
“Since the first eclipse and through COVID, all the surveys show that we've increased our usage of the forest down here just in the last three or four years by 38%,� he said. “That's a big increase in tourism.�
Another factor is the people already living on the land. What’s to become of the thousands of people who decided to call land within Shawnee National Forest home?
“This whole forest down here is so cut up,� Simons explains. “It's inundated with private land. That's why it would be so difficult to make it a private park, unless they're gonna claim eminent domain, and buy as much ground as that. That's a forest. I mean it’s 50-50.�
So for Simons and those with Back Country Horsemen, it’s best to leave well enough alone.
"We're better off with the forest service,� said Simons. “We have better access. We have a much better management program of our forest and our former forest down the road is going to be healthier under the forest service than it ever would be under the Parks Department.�
It would take an act of congress to transition the Shawnee National Forest into a National Park; a move congressman Mike Bost opposes.
