Indiana Congresswoman Erin Houchin has introduced H.R. 8535, legislation which will more than double the size of the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area and establish the new Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area adjacent to the expanded wilderness in the Hoosier National Forest.
H.R. 8535 is the House companion to S. 2990, the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area and Wilderness Establishment Act of 2023, by Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) which itself was reintroduced into the Senate this week as S.4402 with language identical to that of H.R. 8535.
Rep. Houchin’s introduction of this landmark legislation makes it much more likely to become law, leaving Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind) as the only federal legislator who represents the area who has yet to come out in support of the bill.
Indiana Forest Alliance is very thankful to Congresswoman Houchin for her introduction of this bill. IFA staff have spent the last five years working around the clock to protect this area from ill-conceived Forest Service plans to log and burn much of it. Since the Senate version of this legislation was introduced by Sen. Braun last fall, IFA’s advocacy team has been hard at work pushing to build support. With Rep. Houchin’s action, we are one significant step closer to getting this bill across the finish line. We call on Sen. Todd Young to swifty sign on as a co-sponsor of this bill so we can permanently protect the largest wild forest in the lower midwestern United States from logging, burning and other destructive activities.
Please use this link to contact Sen. Young. and ask him to Co-Sponsor S 4402 in the Senate.
Sen. Young’s staff person or “point of contact” on this bill is his Legislative Assistant for Public Lands, Burke Miller, who can be contacted at: Burke_Miller@young.senate.gov
To assist in writing these letters, IFA has prepared a brief fact sheet. Feel free to include any of this information in your letters to Sen. Young, as well as any additional information or personal connection to the proposed Wilderness and National Recreation Area that you feel is relevant.
Click here to view the fact sheet
Once passed, this legislation will designate an additional 15,300 acres of wilderness to the north, east and southeast of the current Deam Wilderness, more than doubling its current size from 12,953 acres to 28,253 acres. Additionally, 29,382 acres of national forest land surrounding the expanded Wilderness will be designated as the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area to protect Lake Monroe and promote hiking, horseback riding, camping and mountain biking on these public lands under a Management Plan for the area.
Efforts to preserve these lands has spanned over half a century. In 1973, then-Hoosier National Forest Supervisor, A. Claude Ferguson proposed that much of these lands be preserved as wilderness. Senator Birch Bayh sponsored legislation to establish a 30,000 plus acre wilderness study area on these lands, but it failed due to public outcry over its inclusion of private lands [included in that original proposal]. In this current legislation, no private land is included in the wilderness or National Recreation Area, as all of it is already part of Hoosier National Forest.
For more information on the contents of the bill, including a map of the proposed area, click here.
