Defending Your Right to Wilderness Recreation: 5 More Actions You Can Take
This 2,700 acre BCA is the largest tract of old forest left in our state forests since logging was escalated by 400% over the last 12 years to restore 30% of the DOF’s budget cut by the Legislature. The oldest trees in this tract are 130 to 160 years old.
Citizens to Gov. Holcomb: “Value of our state forests cannot be measured in board feet & dollars”
Here, we share powerful excerpts of messages from outraged citizens to Gov. Holcomb’s office.
The Virgin Forest Project: Nature Meets Technology
My Creative Renewal proposal was designed to get me out of town, into the woods, and to help me discover the natural beauty Indiana has to offer.
Indiana’s Forests: For The People
We submit that SB 420 is not telling our foresters how to practice silviculture or stopping logging in our state forests at all. Rather, the legislature established our state forests originally for the public benefit of all and therefore has a legitimate role to play in establishing the objectives that state forests should serve.
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.
How Much Forest Do Other States Set Aside from Logging?
Senate Bill 420 would set aside a small portion, 10%, of Indiana’s state forestland to be off limits to logging. Here’s an inside look as to how public forests are being managed outside of Indiana.
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.
Protect Indiana’s Assets
Now when you hike the great trails like the Tecumseh or the Knobstone, ones that Indiana should be proud to show case, you will likely see them horribly scarred. I know how it effects me, but I wonder how this impacts scores out-of-state visitors and their desire to return to Indiana to hike.
A Bill For Our Children
One of the places I was privileged to have this kind of forest experience was in Ferdinand State Forest, which is a reasonable distance from where I live. Sharing this with my child and now grandchildren has been especially precious to me. Please help insure this opportunity is available to their children.
Support from the Old-Growth Forest Network
For the small amount of income that you will forgo from not logging that 10% you will more than recover in economic development from tourism, and possibly from the emerging carbon market.