etic Use BON eB Uta Bh 9 
One Conservationist’s Viewpoint 
THE BALLOT DRIVE FOR ALLERTON PARK 
By RAYMOND MOSTEK 
(Past President, Illinois Audubon Society). 
Located along the Sangamon Riv- 
er, near Monticello, is a lovely 
woodland of almost 1,500 acres, 
known to thousands as Robert Al- 
lerton Park. A gift to the people of 
Illinois, and now owned by the 
public University of Illinois, this 
unique area has been of great con- 
cern to many citizens in terms of 
its preservation. 
It is threatened by the disreput- 
able and infamous Army Corps of 
Engineers and the Oakley Dam, 
now estimated to cost over $80 mil- 
lion. The project is planned for 
the Sangamon River in Macon and 
Piatt Counties. It is opposed by the 
Illinois Audubon Society, the Sier- 
ra Club, Friends of the Earth, and 
the Audubon Council of Illinois. 
It is favored by almost every con- 
gressman in the state, by Senators 
Stevenson and Percy, and by Gov- 
ernor Walker. It is opposed by sev- 
eral heroic state legislators. 
The Corps of Engineers wants a 
flowage easement on 1,100 acres of 
the 1,500 acre park. The area con- 
tains a scenic road through the 
park bottomlands. It would lead 
to the cutting of trees and “rip- 
rapping” in the park. 
The project has been denounced 
for its so-called value as a recrea- 
tional and water-supply boondog- 
gle. Decatur voters, by a 2-1 vote 
in 1959, rejected a proposal to build 
their own dam. Now they are call- 
ing upon the people of Illinois and 
the nation to spend $80 million. 
The depth of Oakley Dam would 
be about six feet. Opponents have 
charged it would mean eutrophica- 
tion and pollution problems. Near- 
by Shelbyville Reservoir already 
provides the kind of water-recrea- 
tion sports the proponents demand. 
Allerton Park is an oasis of woods 
and form and art in a midwest 
flatland. 
The Save Allerton Referendum 
Committee (P.O. Box N, Station A, 
Champaign, Ill. 61820) has been 
organized to place the question of 
Allerton Park and Oakley Dam 
on the ballot in November, 1974. 
It is circulating thousands of 
legal petitions around the state. It 
needs more than 600,000 names of 
legal Illinois voters by August, 
1974, to have the question placed 
on the November ballot. 
Only registered voters may cir- 
culate the petitions. Completed 
petitions must be notarized. Reg- 
istered voters over 18 years of age 
may sign. Conservation clubs are 
being asked to send at least one 
petition to every member. Friends 
and relatives may circulate these 
petitions. Names may be obtained 
at club meetings, church meetings, 
outside shopping centers, door-to- 
door, card parties, scrabble parties, 
civic club meetings and political 
rallies . . . in short, wherever two 
or three are gathered in the name 
of sanity and the preservation of 
Allerton Park. 
Robert Allerton who lived his 
declining years in Hawaii, was a 
member of the IlJinois Audubon 
Society. The park is held in trust 
by an educational institution. It 
