DNR Hosts Annual State Forest Open Houses Next Week – We Need YOU to Attend Them
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is holding its annual State Forest open houses next week from Oct. 22 – 24.
These open houses are our chance to question the Indiana Division of Forestry (DoF) within the DNR in a setting in which they cannot deflect or ignore our questions. The state forests and our Hoosier National Forest comprise nearly half of Indiana’s state and federal public lands and the largest blocks of deep forest habitat, making their management for ecological and recreational objectives crucially important.
IFA encourages everyone to attend at least one of these open houses. The following are questions and issues that would be good to raise:
- How much of this State Forest is the DNR setting aside from logging to preserve it for “enjoyment and guaranteed use of future generations,” as required by state law? Where are those areas and what percentage of the total area of this State Forest area is that?
- How do logging plans in this State Forest consider the “local market need” as required by state law and how does DNR ensure that the timber harvested at these taxpayer-funded State Forests is staying local and stimulating the local economy?
- What steps does the DNR require loggers take to avoid polluting waterways during logging projects (such as prohibiting logging on slopes over 30 degrees or requiring water quality monitoring of streams draining logging sites)? Stress that such monitoring, including baseline sampling before the logging occurs, should be required.
- The scraping of forest floors to bare ground and clearing of tree canopies from logging is contributing to explosions of nonnative invasive plants in the state forests such as Japanese Stiltgrass which are displacing native plants that are food for wildlife and harming the growth of tree seedlings. Prescribed burning is also contributing to nonnative species invasions. What steps is the DNR taking to stop the growth of nonnative invasive plants from logging and other state forest management activities? If DNR is broadcast-spraying glyphosate (Roundup) and other herbicides to control invasive plants, is it monitoring runoff from such sites to ensure that herbicides are not polluting streams or other water resources?
- What are the upcoming logging projects planned in this State Forest and in which area(s) of this State Forest will they be done? Is this logging going to take place in “Old Forests” that had been set aside from logging by the DNR under Governors prior to Mitch Daniels to restore old growth conditions? Is this logging going to close major recreational trails such as the Knobstone, Tecumseh, or Adventure Trails, detract from the scenery of camping areas or degrade undisturbed deep woods in the state’s three Back Country Areas? Ask why the DNR is going to cut down these forests and urge them not to.
- What are the details of the plant and wildlife inventory process that the DNR conducts before authorizing logging to ensure no endangered, threatened or rare animals or plants are harmed? Very little of the state forests have been inventoried for such species. Stress that beyond checking the Indiana Natural Heritage Database to see if such species have been found in a tract to be logged, the DNR should conduct an inventory to document the presence of such species or their habitats before any logging and modify logging plans to avoid harming them.
- What steps are being taken to determine how much carbon has been stored in forest tracts to be logged and how much of that carbon will be released as a result of the logging and associated practices including timber stand improvement and prescribed burning? Is the DNR allowing longer rotations between logging in the state forests to ensure that more carbon is stored? Stress that the storage of carbon in older forests should be a management priority for every state forest given the immediate need for government agencies to address the climate crisis.
For many of these questions, DNR’s answer will likely reveal that they are not following state law or guidance documents or the recommendations of sustainable forestry auditors in the international Forest Stewardship Council regarding forest management and logging policies.
The full schedule for these open houses is as follows:
- Ferdinand-Pike State Forest: Oct. 22, 4 to 7 p.m., at the property office off State Road 264, approximately 4 miles northeast of Ferdinand. Call 812-827-2857 for more information.
- Harrison-Crawford State Forest: Oct. 22, 4 to 7 p.m., at the property office off State Road 462, just past the gatehouse for O’Bannon Woods State Park. Call 812-738-7694 for more information.
- Salamonie River and Frances Slocum State Forests: Oct. 22, 4 to 7 p.m., at the Salamonie River State Forest office off State Road 524, approximately 6 miles east of Wabash. Call 260-782-0430 for more information.
- Greene-Sullivan State Forest: Oct. 23, 4 to 7 p.m., at the property office on State Road 159, approximately 1.5 miles south of Dugger. Call 812-648-2810 for more information.
- Martin State Forest: Oct. 23, 4 to 7 p.m., at the property office off U.S. 50, approximately 4 miles northeast of Shoals. Call 812-247-3491 for more information.
- Owen-Putnam State Forest: Oct. 23, 4 to 7 p.m., at the property office, which is 5 miles west of Spencer and less than a mile north of State Road 46. Call 812-829-2462 for more information.
- Clark State Forest: Oct. 24, 4 to 7 p.m., at the property office, which is a mile north of Henryville on U.S. 31. Call 812-294-4306 for more information.
- Jackson-Washington and Selmier State Forests: Oct. 24, 4 to 7 p.m., at the Jackson-Washington State Forest office, which is 2.5 miles east of Brownstown, just east of the Jackson County Fairgrounds on State Road 250. Call 812-358-2160 for more information.
- Morgan-Monroe, Ravinia, Yellowwood, and Mountain Tea State Forests: Oct. 24, 4 to 7 p.m., at the Morgan-Monroe State Forest office off State Road 37, approximately 6 miles south of Martinsville. Call 765-792-4654 for more information.
Each of the open houses will also include a guided hike with a DNR Forester, beginning at 5 p.m.
If you have any questions or need more guidance on what to ask at these events, feel free to contact IFA Communications and Policy Director Evan Robbins at: evan@indianaforestalliance.org
