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When he’s not busy working at Good Vibes Sound in Champaign, Jason Elliott, 34, heads to Oakwood’s Kickapoo State Park to unwind and enjoy the 11 miles of mountain bike trails he and fellow members of the Kickapoo Mountain Bike Club work to maintain year-round. But if nothing is done by spring to reverse Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s decision to close 11 state parks in Ilinois on Nov. 1, including Kickapoo, Elliott and members of the mountain bike club will be subject to arrest if they attempt to access the trails they’ve worked to maintain since 1993.

Kickapoo’s bike trails are the most accessible to those residing in the Champaign-Urbana and Danville areas. “It’s just about the only place in east central Illinois where there are legal trails,” says Elliott.

But after Nov. 1, according to Kickapoo Landing operator Tod Satterthwaite, park officials have been instructed to cable off the perimeter of the park and gate off entrances that will keep the park’s 1.4 million annual visitors at bay. The park attracts bikers, kayakers, hunters, campers, runners, fishers and anyone else who wants frolic in a 2,842-acre park and escape city life. Each year the park hosts a number of high school cross country meets, bike races and school trips.

Satterthwaite says he doubts the governor’s office considered the quality of life for Illinoisans living south of Chicago when this decision was made last week. “It seems that there wasn’t much consideration given to the people of this area at all,” says Satterthwaite.

Gov. Blagojevich used his veto power late last week to cut more than $463 million dollars from the state budget passed by legislators. According to the governor’s press release, this effort was an attempt to trim down “pork” projects and other spending to balance the state budget. As a result of the veto, 39 Department of Natural Resources employees were laid off. Weldon Springs State Park in Clinton is also slated to close its gates Nov. 1. In addition to park closings, 13 state historical sites, including the Lincoln log cabin in Charleston will close. But Elliot and Satterthwaite don’t see these cuts as trimming the fat; they say the governer is taking away essential natural resources for area citizens.

Satterthwaite says parks are essential, even in times of economic crisis.

“With the economy the way it is, you can’t take away something that doesn’t cost a lot of money to do,” says Satterthwaite.

Area residents were so outraged by the decision that more than 300 people gathered Friday in protest at the park. According to the Kickapoo Mountain Bike Club message board, Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, pledged to protesters he would do everything in his power to keep the park open to the public, including exploring the possibility of Vermillion County leasing the park from the state. If that optiion falls through or funding isn’t restored to the DNR, however, the fate of the park is uncertain.

Satterthwaite said a number of petitions are circulating in the community, and the response has been overwhelming. The Kickapoo Mountain Bike Club is encouraging its members and others in the community to contact the governor’s office and their local representatives.

The club has also been in contact with the International Mountain Bicycling Association, a lobbying group that fights for legal trails to stay open to the public. Elliott says their involvement will be an asset to the cause.

“We’re pretty optimistic about it right now,” says Elliot.

Satterthwaite says he hopes the uprising against the park’s closing will be the beginning of the discussion on how to keep it open, not the end.

“I think that this isn’t something we can let rest with the legislators in our area,” says Satterthwaite. “We all need to stand up and be heard. We won’t stand for the closing of our state parks.”