I would not go so far as to say the reasoning is fraudelent, but it is bogus. My point isn't to rehash that breakdown. Hopefully you have already read it.

I have two concerns that come out of that, one immediate and one long term.

First, the immediate one. I wonder whether any more than one or two outdoorsmen or women will bother to drop IDNR director Marc Miller--marc.miller@illinois.gov--an e-mail opposing the switch of the Leesville East Savanna to a nature preserve.

Second, the long term one. This is the first nature preserve where I looked at the reasoning for putting public land into a dedicated nature preserve. And I was stunned by the foolishness of it.

Now I wonder how many other patches of public land were locked down forever into nature preserve status for similarly bogus reasons.

That's a problem. Once lands go into nature preserve status in Illinois, they are locked into that virtually forever.

I will do more on this in coming days.