The Audubon Council of Illinois (ACI), which represents nine chapters of National Audubon Society and 52,000 members in the state, has concerns about the proposed airstrip expansion at the Waukegan National Airport in Lake County.
The loss of natural areas due to habitat destruction is alarming. Last year, another airport expansion in Rockford bifurcated one of the last gravel prairies in our state. Illinois was once a great expanse of prairies, savannas, wetlands and woodlands. Connected habitats like these provided opportunities for a wide range of diverse species of plants, birds, insects, mammals, fungi and more to thrive.
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Today, however, wildlife faces fragmented landscapes that cause barriers and obstacles rather than opportunities to thrive. In 2023, 21 species of birds and wildlife were removed from the endangered species list and officially declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We cannot continue to destroy habitat at the rate it is being destroyed.
We support natural areas being protected and preserved. We believe using 52 acres of forest preserve property to expand a runway is a poor use of land designated as natural space for the public. Forest preserves should be stewards of our land and not sold off to other industries that will destroy native oaks and wetlands as part of an expansion. We oppose the proposed use of this land as an expanded airport runway.
Jennifer Kuroda, Audubon Council of Illinois board president, Rockford
Durbin’s homage shows he has the ‘write’ stuff
I was awestruck by the moving op-ed from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in the Sun-Times on the passing of former downstate Illinois union leader Ed Smith. “A good man and a genuine leader with a clear mission in life,” as Durbin put it, Smith worked in Cairo, a town that had been fraught with racial strife and poverty.
Most remarkable of his endeavors is how Smith came up with the idea to start a fund to invest union pension money, not in Wall Street, but in infrastructure projects that were both good ideas and opportunities to create good-paying union jobs.
In 2004, Durbin drove the then-state Sen. Barack Obama to visit Cairo (Obama’s first visit) and to attend a barbecue hosted by Smith, then president of the Laborers Union Headquarters.
Smith’s friends and many union members — Black and white — were at the barbecue. Why? They were there because Smith was all about fair treatment to all, as Durbin points out. The event was a formative one for Obama, so formative that Obama would later recount it with national media.
After reading Durbin’s piece I have one message for book agents: Get thee to the senator for his memoir. Capture the extraordinary experiences Durbin has had, his knowledge of remarkable leaders like Smith and his foresight to broaden the world of up and coming leaders, including Obama.
Dottie Jeffries, Hyde Park
Waste no time responding to Greg Abbott
Since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants to keep sending migrants to Illinois because it is a sanctuary state, I think we should return the favor.
After the buses drop off the migrants, we should load the buses with fly ash and other waste generated by oil and coal to be sent back to Texas. Since Abbott does not believe in climate change and is opposed to green energy, he can deal with the waste generated by oil and coal.
Peter Felitti, Ravenswood
