Illinios Struggles

By Daniel Mullins

This weekend I spent time at the 2014 Heartwood Forest Council in the Shawnee National Forest of Southern Illinois to learn about the different forests and how to help protect them. The timber industry wants to make money off all the trees in our national forests.  Oil and natural gas drilling and fracking are also threats to our national forests. I learned more about struggles in Appalachia and Mesoamerica from the Beehive Design Collective, who make large posters about things going on in other places. Many struggles are caused by big corporations, similar to what Peabody Coal, Strata X Energy, and Woolsey Energy Corporation are doing in Southern Illinois to make money from fossil fuels, destroying the land people call home and the water sources they need to live. Like in Appalachia where companies like Alpha Natural Resources cause streams to be poisoned by mining coal.


While at the Heartwood Forest Council I also learned about recreational tree climbing that was easy once I started off. We used rope, rock climbing harnesses, and carabiners, which are heavier duty

clips than what some people use on water bottles. I also walked in the woods by myself most of the time, but at some points I walked with two friends named Andy and Steve, who are two guys who really love nature, and my sister. I learned about beech trees. My sister started calling them elephant skin trees. Being in the woods again made me feel happy because of all the beauty in the forest. We need to save the forests everywhere, including back home in Appalachia.We can save a lot of them by conserving energy and taking action against all these big corporations.