“Dear Division of Forestry…”

We disagree heartily with many assertions in the letter. Below, IFA Executive Director Jeff Stant addresses every point in this six-page rebuttal. Here’s Seifert’s letter, with highlights of Stant’s rebuttal inserted in blue.

The Ecoblitz: A Lichenologist’s View

Habitat loss, deforestation, and pollution have already greatly impacted many lichen species in the United States, such that it is now more important than ever to understand where individual species occur and how rare they are.

The Crown Hill North Woods: An Ecological Jewel

Just as the inscriptions on the grave markers are a reminder of, and tribute to, our forbearers, the woods are a legacy of the past, linking generations. Woods of this size and quality are not found in many places in central Indiana.

An Aversion to Nature’s Nouns

Stewardship requires emotional commitment, requires that we love what we steward. Increasingly we exercise control over the material world, without knowing what we are controlling, accelerating the exploitation of nature, thereby decreasing true stewardship.

A Smaller Portion of a Small Pie

We had a list of compartments and tracts that were protected from logging so we knew exactly where they were. But then DNR changed their minds. They no longer recognize those Old Forest areas and some of those tracts have now been logged.

Protecting the Unknown

Old-growth forests provided habitat that support rare biological diversity and unique assemblages of animals, plants, and fungi that are found nowhere else but in old-growth forests.