To the editor:

As submitted to Gov. Holcomb with no response,

Respectfully I submit this message and hope you actually read it and it’s not just kept as a tally on some scoring of pros versus cons.

I have listened to you present, most recently at the Bloomington Chamber gathering, and have found myself respecting your perspective and thoughtfulness in governing our great state.

I have lived in Indiana all of my life. I am a professional worker, pay income and sales taxes, am a property owner and pay those taxes, and happily do so as part of creating a better community for all of our citizens. But, I also choose to live in the Brown County woods, where I consider myself a grateful steward of this natural world as long as I am granted the ability to be alive.

Regularly I walk the deep woods of Yellowwood State Forest and connect with the space. I watch the birds, turkey, endangered bats. I smell the deep, spicy richness of a forest that is in its natural state. There are not enough of those places left in this state.

I witnessed the last logging of a tract of the forest off Slippery Elm Shoot Road (look it up). I’d attended open houses and read every word of the DNR’s forest plan. The logging that proceeded did not follow the intent of that stated plan. It did not focus on decaying or dying trees but took healthy, profitable trees. In its wake, it left massive tracks of mud and buried stone, ripped and twisted tree remnants, and, worst of all, invasive species so thick that no animal or human can traverse through it. That has been years now and I can tell you, as I still frequent it, the land has not been restored. At all. I have looked up the value of trees felled. I know it. The amount that is gained by the State of Indiana is not even close to sufficient to the damage that is left in the logging’s wake.

Do you not ever walk in a deep woods? If you did, you would immediately feel your breathing calm, your mind still and clear, your blood pressure decrease. These benefits have not been valued and included in any cost-benefit analysis by the DNR. And they absolutely should be.

It is time for you to step up, be strong, be determined, and recognize that it’s OK to upset some people who have been on their own path of logic for some time, to say to them, “Enough. We can and will do better than this. We are not going to log these deep tracts of forest, the few remaining areas of uninterrupted land left for wildlife that makes our great state so rich.” Do it. I believe you are completely capable of it. I do, or I wouldn’t be typing this at the end of another very long work day dedicated to serving our fellow citizens, as that is what I do every day.

You do, too. So, step outside today or tomorrow. Take a deep breath. Be strong and be the leader of reason and purpose that I know you are so capable of being.

If you feel the need to come experience yourself, and I welcome that, please contact me. My husband, a retired public school teacher, and I would be more than happy to show you the path.

Chris Myers, Brown County

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