Ill. officials: Loggers illegally harvested timber

SPRINGFIELD - A logging company will pay a conservation group $75,000 for illegally harvesting timber from a northern Illinois nature preserve.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources also says another logger is charged with stealing trees from private landowners.

Authorities say Lacon-based Poignant Logging stole 88 mature white oak trees from the Nature Conservancy's Tallmadge Sand Forest Land and Water Reserve in Kankakee County after being hired by an adjacent hunting club.

The company will pay $75,000 to the Nature Conservancy for the trees and site damage. The Antlers and Wings Hunt Club will sell 69 acres to the conservancy to expand the nature reserve.

In the second case, officials say a Shannon man faces 16 felony charges for allegedly stealing almost $100,000 in timber from Stephenson County landowners.