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Lusk Creek Wilderness canopy by John Wallace.

We have some good news to share—and you helped make it happen!

Earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service released a

Prescribed Burn Project with plans to burn all 289,000 acres of the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, including all seven Wilderness areas totaling nearly 30,000 acres. Incredibly, forest Service officials proposed to burn 25,000 acres annually, seemingly in perpetuity, including setting a torch to the Bald Knob, Bay Creek, Burden Falls, Clear Springs, Garden of the Gods, Lusk Creek, and Panther Den Wildernesses.

The type of sweeping manipulation proposed on the Shawnee National Forest is precisely what the Wilderness Act’s “untrammeled” mandate seeks to prevent—humans imposing their will on Wilderness to try to create managers’ desired conditions rather than allowing nature to shape the wild.

Over 8,300 of our members and supporters heeded our call to action and joined with us in opposition to this sweeping habitat manipulation in Wilderness. Earlier this summer, Wilderness Watch

filed an official objection to the Shawnee National Forest, standing firm in our opposition to this misguided project, which called for tree cutting, burning, and motorized use—even in Wilderness.

On August 21, we got

a letter from Shawnee National Forest Supervisor Felipe Cano informing us that our objection was successful and the agency was withdrawing the entire project!

This victory would not have been possible without the actions of our members and supporters—thank you!

Not only did this proposal violate the basic tenets of the Wilderness Act, but the science that the Forest Service was using to justify this project is highly contested. While the agency claims that the Shawnee National Forest is an oak-hickory ecosystem degraded by fire exclusion, a robust body of work has demonstrated that the forests of southern Illinois are mesophytic, adapted to moderately moist environments created by nearly 50 inches of precipitation annually. In a mesophytic ecosystem, manager-ignited fire like that contemplated in the agency’s plan would trammel a complex, evolving system that is home to over 500 wildlife species.

Alarmingly, this project also actively sought to undermine transparency, accountability, and meaningful public participation by foregoing important site-specific analysis until

after the National Environmental Policy Act process was finished. Projects such as the Shawnee Prescribed Burn, which aim to carry out landscape-level manipulation with the use of chainsaws, helicopters, and drones, have no place in Wilderness.

While we celebrate the Forest Service’s decision to withdraw this project, we must remain vigilant in our defense of Wilderness. Not only could the agency bring back an altered version of this project, but the agency is also seeking permission for more aggressive habitat manipulation projects in Wilderness throughout the country.

Your actions and your support help us keep Wilderness wild.

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Forest Service withdraws project to torch all seven Wilderness areas on the Shawnee National Forest

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