U.S. Forest Service plans logging, prescribed burns for Hoosier National Forest
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Houston firefighters keep tabs on a prescribed burn at the the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center. Photo: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
The Indiana Forest Alliance is raising an alarm about U.S. Forest Service plans which, the advocacy group says, threaten the health of the Hoosier National Forest.
Driving the news: The Buffalo Springs Restoration Project, which calls for up to 15,000 acres of prescribed burns and clearcutting 700 acres in Orange and Crawford counties, is the largest forest management project the Forest Service has proposed in the state.
- Other logging and tree thinning projects are planned for several thousand more acres.
- The Forest Service said the goal is to improve forest health, the sustainability of the oak-hickory ecosystems and wildlife habitats.
State of play: The Indiana Forest Alliance opposes the project, arguing that it could exacerbate the effects of climate change and threaten the quality of drinking water for thousands of Hoosiers.
- Steven Stewart, IFA's Hoosier National Forest program director, says the project is picking winners and losers in identifying which tree species and animals to protect.
- Though the Forest Service has said the project will not have a significant negative environmental impact, Stewart says there hasn't been enough study done.
What they're saying: Stewart calls the logging practices employed by the Forest Service outdated — from a time when the agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was essentially farming the nation's forests for timber.
- "When the world environmental community is accepting that we're losing forest at a dramatic rate and it's affecting the whole planet … they're stuck in a paradigm from the 1950s that doesn't look toward the preservation of our forest," Stewart said.
Between the lines: In addition to the logging concerns, IFA is worried the roads needed for the project, the loss of trees, and the particulate matter from the burns could increase sediment and diminish the water quality of Patoka Lake and the Lost River.
- Patoka Lake is a recreational area and water supply for five counties.
- The Lost River is renowned for its unusual hydrology, including thousands of sinkholes and miles through which the river flows completely underground.
- Two of the Lost River's features have been named National Natural Landmarks.
The other side: The Forest Service declined an interview request for this story, but Chris Thornton, district ranger for the area, said in a guest column published in The Bloomington Herald-Times that inaction isn't an option.
- "We need to create healthier forests by reducing overcrowding to make them more resilient to these ever-increasing climate stressors," he wrote.
What's next: The project could start as early as January.