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At Starved Rock State Park, where great canyons and vast woods along 
the river would seem to be able to hold their own against commercial in- 
terests, where 1,436 acres of nature in its wildest and most impressive form 
in Illinois would seem permanently safe, little inroads of commercial blight 
have been pressing even at the gate. Where once a deep meadow of prairie 
grasses and wild flowers swept up to the entrance woods, now a barren 
Mother Goose Playland rears its commercial head, an amusement place at 
cross purposes with nature. Even closer, a new motel converges on wood- 
land wildlife habitat. Parking lots and swings “took to the woods” between 
Fox and French Canyons to accommodate the public. Still the park is a 
fabulous wildlife setting. It gave me my first Prairie Horned Lark, Louisi- 
ana Waterthrush, and American Egret, and while low on wildflowers near 
the cabins and lodge, its remote trails hold beautiful stands of shooting 
stars, columbine, rue anemone, golden alexander, pink wood geraniums, and 
blue phlox. 
At White Pines Forest, a gem of wildlife habitat and scenic beauty, the 
385 acres are far smaller, as the State Park was established long after it 
was originally proposed as a much vaster area, and long after private 
lumbering took deadly toll of the pines. Yet it gave me my longest bird 
list to date: Scarlet Tanagers, Cardinals, towhees, Indigo Buntings, gold- 
finches, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, orioles, Catbirds, Blue Jays, thrushes, 
vireos, Mourning Doves, Song sparrows, wrens, woodpeckers, chickadees, 
titmice, nuthatches, kingfishers, swallows, owls, hawks, and seemingly the 
whole book of warblers. In springtime its wooded bluffs are shimmering 
with thousands of fragile white bloodroot, hepaticas, wake robin, and colum- 
bine. Trillium, toothwort, dutchman’s breeches and trout lilies grow ex- 
travagantly in the woods, and jack-in-the-pulpits and Jacob’s ladder and 
rue anemone along the many woodland trails. The whole pine forest floor 
is carpeted with millions of pink spring beauties and violets — our state 
flower. The winding stream is full and fresh, and there are usually fisher- 
men along the banks. Animals and birds are easier to find in their natural 
habitat than in the secluded, remote acres of Starved Rock. 
Yet even at White Pines, progress and the years have taken some toll. 
Thick tangles of cover and nesting sites near the cabin area have been 
cleaned out, sending the nesting birds farther off, and efficient raking near 
the cabins has broken the leaf-mold cycle of the forest, so essential for 
wildflower. A road encircles the quiet cabins with the sound and movement 
of motors, and ample parking space so important to each guest has left 
nearby wildflower areas only mud and moss. From Red Cedar Trail, a steep 
adventure in birding, you can see the looming profile of a roller rink across 
the highway, shattering the illusion of wilderness. 
Instead of disrupting wildlife habitat and scenic beauty with conflicting 
amusement and recreation sites, we must maintain the integrity of our 
State Parks. Other interests should find other terrain. We need more, not 
less, natural areas protecting Illinois’ distinctive flora and fauna, her trees, 
her streams, and her vanishing wildlife. These “living museums” should be 
kept inviolable, and more should be discovered and ‘‘added to the crown”’ 
while there is still some land to be found — putting under the permanent 
protection of the State even more scenic beauty and wildlife habitat. For 
what we don’t save today will never be saved. We will never have a better 
chance. Nor will we have another chance — for Open Spaces in Illinois. 
The Elms, 914 North Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 
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