Some Illinois environmental groups are raising concerns about a proposed expansion of a mountain bike trail at Kickapoo State Recreation Area. They are asking the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to either cancel the project or move it to more suitable areas within the park.
Clark Bullard is a board member with Prairie Rivers Network….
{AUDIO: “We had some botanists from the Natural History Survey and some experts come and look at the area to see how it ranked environmentally. And they found several rare and endangered species of plants. Everybody could relish – (and) understand the value of wildflowers that bloom there every year.”}
And it is not just rare and endangered plants in the area that has the environmental groups concerned about the mountain bike trail’s proposed expansion…..
{AUDIO: “They have conducted breeding bird surveys there for the last three summers and found sixty-two species of breeding birds who winter in the Amazon and breed up here. So…that alerted us to the value – the ecological value – of the area.”
Environmental groups concerned about the proposed mountain bike trail extension include Prairie Rivers Network, Illinois Sierra Club, and the Middlefork Audubon Society. They say a new IDNR commissioned environmental study concludes the project would irreversibly damage the environmentally sensitive area. But the groups say it appears that IDNR plans to forge ahead with its plans.
