To the editor:
This is a call to peaceful action in a last-ditch effort to save one of Brown County’s true treasures, the Back Country Area (BCA) of Yellowwood State Forest, which is in imminent danger of destruction.
Here are a few statistics that may help explain the importance of the Back Country Area:
- There are 158,300 acres of forestland managed by the Indiana Division of Forestry
- There are 2,700 acres in the Yellowwood/Morgan-Monroe BCA; this is a minuscule 1.7 percent of state forest lands, but it comprises over 50 percent of all old-growth forests in the state of Indiana
- 900 acres are in the Yellowwood State Forest portion of the BCA
- 300 acres are proposed for logging in the Yellowwood BCA; this is 33 percent of all the old-growth forest in Yellowwood SF
The Division of Forestry strives to sell around 14 million board feet of timber each year. As tallied in the sale notice for the Nov. 9, 2017 auction of the timber on the three Back Country Area tracts in Yellowwood State Forest, 1,733 trees will be cut for a total volume of 447,644 board feet.
This means that despite the loss of these trees and the damage inflicted on the Back Country in the process of cutting them down, the Division of Forestry will still need to sell an additional 13.55 million board feet of state forest timber in order to meet their self-imposed quota for the year.
The devastation to the Back Country will account for only a little more than 3 percent of the division’s annual logging quota, or less than 1.5 percent of the division’s overall budget.
Yet the damage to the forest and the Back Country experience will be great and long-lasting. The fragile forest floor will be compacted by heavy logging equipment; the native forest plants will be exposed to sunlight and beating rains; eroded soil will run off the tracts, eventually finding its way into Lake Lemon.
And most regrettable, the rare sense of tranquility and quiet, engendered by the towering oak and hickories in this rare, beautiful woods, will be shattered.
How you can help stop this logging:
- Email or phone Governor Holcomb — it’s not too late to let him know you want him to intervene: 317-232-4567; [email protected]
- Attend the timber sale, scheduled to take place at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, at the Yellowwood State Forest office on Yellowwood Lake Road.
- Peacefully inhabit Yellowwood State Forest for a day, a week, or longer.
For more on the encampment, visit Facebook:
www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=save yellowwood! encampment
www.facebook.com/Save-Yellowwood-1427391540702605/
#SaveYellowwood
For more on the issues, visit the website: www.saveyellowwood.com.
Thank you,
Linda Baden, Friends of Yellowwood
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