Earth First! occupied the Fairview Timber Sale area in the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois for 79 days – at that time, the longest occupation in EF! history.
The area slated to be cut was rich in biodiversity, a haven for songbirds, and loved by the many locals who went there to watch the birds, camp, or enjoy nature.
The occupation stood in solidarity with the Mohawk uprising during the Oka Crisis and with Redwood Summer, a major national mobilization to save the last of the ancient redwoods. Earlier that year, EF! Redwood Summer organizer Judi Bari was almost killed when a pipe bomb exploded under the seat of the car she was driving.
There was a lot of local support toward the occupation. Local organic growers donated more food than the camp could use and the postmaster for the region gave the encampment a post box so mail could be delivered to the forest defenders. By the time the occupiers were removed, the protest in the Shawnee was on the evening news nightly in Illinois and many parts of Kentucky, Indiana and Missouri. The major daily newspaper in Springfield, IL, the state’s capital, called the Earth First! occupation “a popular uprising.”
On day 79, the encampment was raided and many were arrested as the bulldozers moved in. Following the next day of mass protest and civil disobedience, including multiple arrests, the 7th Circuit appellate court in Chicago issued a Stay which stopped the cutting on day two of the logging operations. The stay was eventually lifted, and even with daily protests and more than thirty arrests, the Forest Service eventually logged Fairview in the fall of 1991. The project cost federal taxpayers more than ten times the amount that the logging company paid to cut the forest.
While it took several years, Fairview helped end of the Shawnee timber program for over two decades. Litigation led to a court injunction on the Forest Service’s 1992 management plan for the Shawnee, halting logging until 2013. But once the injunction was removed, the Forest Service quickly began preparing logging projects and combining those operations with much larger – “restoration” logging projects, involving thousands of acres.
Once again local residents who are rooted in the spirit of past Shawnee resistance formed Shawnee Forest Defense! They are now calling for the Shawnee National Forest to become the Shawnee National Park and Climate Change Preserve. It would be the first climate change preserve in the US.
