LaRue-Pine Hills Appreciation Days slated for this weekend

The LaRue-Pine Hills Area of Southern Illinois' Shawnee National Forest will be busy this weekend for the annual LaRue-Pine Hills Appreciation and Environmental Awareness Days.

Included in the weekend activities will be a field trip to the 350-foot cliffs looming above the swamp, said Marlene Rivero, a spokesperson for the two-day event.

The event, sponsored by the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service and the Nature Conservancy, will feature a number of field trips.

Awareness Days kicks off today at 6 p.m., with a program at Lincoln Memorial Park in Jonesboro, Ill., with programs featuring entertainment, and a presentation on the Underground Railroad.

A Friday program at the Trail of Tears State Forest, north of Jonesboro, will include night field trips on frog calls, bats, and other night bird sounds.

A total of 16 field trips, starting at 7 a.m., will be held Saturday.

Fields trips will depart from the large Trail of Tears State Forest Pavilion. Also available Saturday is a canoe trip on LaRue Swamp.

A two-mile section of LaRue Road in Shawnee National Forest has been closed to motor traffic to allow snake crossings from LaRue Swamp into the nearby Bailey limestone bluffs, where they spend the summer, before returning to the 700-acre swamp in the fall.

The snake migration is the only such event in the nation.

Additional information is available by calling 6l8-833-8576.