Green River
posted in General |by Craig Doherty
The match was lit on Wednesday, April 9, 1992, and the flames are still spreading throught the country and may soon threaten field trials where you live. On that date, officials of the Illinois Department of Conservation (now called the Illinois Department of Natural Resource (IDNR)) conducted a controlled burn at the Green River Wildlife Management Area as part of a program to inhibit the growth of woody plants and encourage native prairie species. The problem was that the National German Shorthaired Pointer Association was in the process of running its national championship and the National Derby Championship was running in the area that was set on fire. the fire consumed all the cover on half of the course being used for the trail and destroyed approximately 1000 birds that had been released for the event. Although apologies were forthcoming from those responsible for the burn, the message was clear: the goals of a handful of wildlife professionals interested in restoring Green River to pre-1840’s prairie status took precedence over a long tradition of usage (over 37 years at the time) of the grounds by field trialers. With the clarity of hindsight and the benefit of the Freedom of Information Act, it now seems apparent that the burn at Green River was the first public shot across the bows of Illinois field trialing. Just prior to that, an inter-office memo within the IDNR, from Roy Marshalla to Dave Klinedinst dated March 23, 1992, characterized field trials, stating that:
- “No evidence that field trials play into the economy has been presented.
- Field trials do not significantly contribute to division or department goals.
- During times of severe budget cuts, programs that are not a high priority naturally get reduced.
- We can not afford to let programs interfere with habitat management on our state sites, too.”
Over the next seven years, the field trial community of Illinois was misled, misinformed and outright deceived by people within the IDNR. After the match was struck in 1992, field trialers were repeatedly led to believe that there was no vendetta, no consipiracy to curtail field trials in Illinois. Yet at the same time, again with that clarity of hindsight, it is obvious that people within the IDNR were not going to quit until field trials were completely eliminated from Green River. Compromises were reached and then never implemented or immediately over-turned. Conclusions were drawn about the impact of field trails on the environment without the benefit of any supporting data. Restrictions were put in place pending the outcome of studies that were never started.
Field trialers are good and trusting people for the most part, and they naively agreed to help the IDNR with the burning at Green River in 1993. In their innocence, they even used various club and private funds to provide equipment for the job. Little did they know at the time, that they were aiding and abetting the enemy. even apparent victories by the field trialers turned out to be further steps towards the end of trials at Green River. Senate Bill 1550 was passed in Illinois in 1993 over the objections of IDNR and seemed to guaranteed that field trial tradition of Illinois would go forward without further interference from wildlife professionals.
In fact, in 1995, with the support of the field trial community, 230 acres, referred to as the Wallace Tract, was added to Green River with the express purpose, according to an IDNR memo dated January 26, 1996 from Terry Musser to Jeff Ver Steeg, “to provide upland hunting, dove hunting, field trialing (horseback and walking trials), management and income to the site.” It looked like perseverance and cooperation would pay off.
At this point, if we thought like Mel Gibson’s character Jerry in the movie Conspiracy Theroy, we would have to assume that “they” got together and came up with a new strategy that the state legislature and the field trialers couldn’t beat. The United States fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) would join the fight. It would appear that the IDNR was trying to salvage the situation for the field trialers, but in the end they would have to accede to the threats of the USFWS. We might even think that Deb Carrey (an environmental activist) and her letter writing campaign was a part of the strategy to get the people off Green River so they wouldn’t interfere with the western jumping mouse and other non-game species that were of special interest to the biologists.
The IDNR gave the USFWS the leverage they needed in 1995 by amending their Pittman-Robertson grant to specify a number of prairie upland and wetland species, such as the above mentioned rodent, as of primary concern in their management plan. With the change in the plan, it was now easier for the USFWS to brand field trials as incompatible with the management plan. The 18 page “Report to the Regional Director Regarding the Programmatic Review of Illinois Federa Aid in Wildlife Grant W-8-L, Entitled a Green River Wildlife Area Acquisition Project” released in October 1998, has a stated purpose, “To review, evaluate and resolve the long standing controversy regarding recreational uses at Green River Wildlife Area.” The report goes on to state that, “the FWS has been supportive of internal efforts by the IDNR to try and resolve this issue (horseback field trials at Green River).” That makes it pretty clear that this originated within the IDNR. the most alarming point in the entire report comes on page 2 where the USFWS states that three days at a trial in 1998 was the total sum of their observation of a field trial in action – not exactly a scientific examination of the situation.
Now that the USFWS had “studied” the problem, it was easy for them to determine that Green River was no longer in compliance with its grant and they could now threaten the IDNR with the loss of over $4.3 million a year in Wildlife Restoration funds. The USFWS also stated that the State of Illinois would have to make restitution to the federal government for an amount equal to the current value of the Green River Wildlife Management Area if they failed to come into compliance. At this point Director Brent Manning of the IDNR could throw up his hands and say he had no choice but to exclude all field trials from Green River because the state could not afford to lose their federal funding. A 40-plus year history of field trials at Green River was wiped out. There was never any real damage to the ecosystem at Green River caused by field trials. What had happened was the westward expansion of our country had changed the ecosystem of the entire prairies to agricultural lands. Green River was indicative of those changes that took place in the last century. Field trials were compatible with what Green River was but not what “they” wanted it to be.
The proof of that is evident. Without any environmental impact studies or other public input, the chainsaws came out and hundreds of trees have already been cut down. Native grasses will be encouraged to take over even though there are no longer any herds of herbivores to keep them in check. More burning will be required to artificially maintain the prairie habitat. Even if the “blue ribbon” panel that has been convened in Illinois reviews the situation and finds that the field trialers were unjustly denied the use of Green River, it will be too late. The new ecosystem created at Green River in the last year will not be compatible with field trails. We can be sure that the IDNR and the USFWS will be able to come up with “scientific proof” that field trials are incompatible with the Green River “prairie” ecosystem.
But then there was never any need for real science at Green River. The field trialers stood in the way of the element within the wildlife community that can be characterized as romantic restorationists. These are people who are paid with monies that come directly from hunting and fishing license sales, Pittman-Robertson and other tax revenues but want to return as much of the country as possible to some idealized primeval state. “They” have moved on from their victory over horseback field trials at Green River and have attacked all kinds of field trials in Michigan. The fire that started at Green River is spreading, some can feel the heat, but many haven’t even seen the smoke yet.
(Editor’s note: We all owe a debt of thanks to the many people who have been a part of the battle for Green River. I especially want to thank Joe Noe for helping us with this article and supplying the pictures from Green River.)