“We’re going to get this right,” Brown County Parks and Recreation board Vice President Keith Baker promised a crowd of about 25 last week.
Parks meetings don’t usually attract this much interest. But the recent clear-cut of the valley across the road from the Bean Blossom Overlook on State Road 135 North brought a large group to this one.
“I don’t have an ax to grind. I’m not here to throw anybody under the bus, but I’m wondering about how it happened,” asked Rick Patrick, arborist and owner of Rick Patrick Tree Care — “how the loggers were given the impression that it was OK to absolutely clear-cut a hill?”
A month after the work was done, who was told what is less than clear.
A contract was signed between Brown County Parks and Recreation and Crowder Hardwood Properties LLC in December, but it does not mention where exactly the cut was to take place, or whether it was to be a clear-cut or a selective cut. It did mention that the department would receive $13,000 in full at contract signing for the cut, including work done in the valley and across the road at the picnic area above the overlook.
“I write proposals that are more detailed than that logging contract was,” Patrick said. “I don’t know who approved it, but you definitely need to hone your contract-writing skills and definitely setting aside, giving them defined areas to log and what is ‘logging,’” he said.
The contract — mostly typed, but amended and added to in pen — was signed Dec. 17, 2018, by Brown County Parks and Recreation Director Mark Shields and G.R. Crowder, the agent for Crowder Hardwood Properties LLC.
It includes 10 terms and conditions. Among them were that Crowder promised to smooth out any ruts caused by logging equipment; that all tops and non-usable stems would be left on the property to promote wildlife bedding, breeding and habitat; that all roads would be left with water diversion bars to prevent soil erosion; and that five trees between the power line and highway would not be cut.
It did not specify how wide of an area the cut would cover.
The county attorney did not return answers to questions related to the review of this contract by deadline.
The cutting of trees on State Road 135 North began early last year when parks and rec reopened the Bean Blossom Overlook at the shelterhouse along 135 North, after receiving requests from the public to restore the view.
Earlier this year, trees also began coming down on the opposite side of the road on top of the hill, where a new emergency communications tower is to be built with the support of county government.
Around the first weekend of February, the valley next to the communications tower hill, opposite the highway from the overlook, was logged by Patrick Logging of Brown County, a subcontractor for Crowder.
Rick Patrick is not related to Patrick Logging owner Jeff Patrick.
After that cut, parks and rec began getting phone calls.
Parks and recreation board President Jim Hahn said the decision was made to coordinate the cut on the south side of the Bean Blossom Overlook with the clearing for the communications tower. He said that after the cut was made at the Bean Blossom Overlook, the department received feedback from the community about possibly cutting the south side.
“We didn’t decide for ourselves we were going to do this. It’s something people from the community had asked for,” Hahn said at the parks meeting.
At the Feb. 20 Brown County Commissioners meeting, commissioner Diana Biddle reiterated that the land logged was not owned by the commissioners and that all concerns should be directed to parks and rec, the department which owns the 147 acres in that area. The commissioners appoint one person to the parks board, and that person Hahn, the president.
“The commissioners were concerned about the issue,” Biddle said.
The commissioners and park board met in a closed executive session on Feb. 15 to discuss a “strategy with respect to pending litigation.” That meeting included the timber contractor and subcontractor, Biddle said.
“They agreed to release us from the contract and they have moved all of their equipment. They are gone from the site,” Biddle said.
Commissioner Jerry Pittman called the situation “a result of miscommunication on several people’s parts.”
“As commissioner, I was shocked and sickened, as many of you were, to see what had been done up there,” he said. “We did not have any control over that and wasn’t aware of what was going on until it was finished and the damage was done.
“I’m not blaming anyone in particular or pointing any fingers, but it shouldn’t have happened,” Pittman said. “I think we can all agree to that.”
He said the commissioners’ only desire was to clear an area for the communication tower.
“We emphasize with everybody in Brown County with what took place there. It’s not a pretty sight right now with visitors coming to Brown County, but I think nature has a way of healing, and (as) seedlings are planted there, we can control the erosion and take as much care of the land as we possibly can at this point going forward,” Pittman said.
“In a few years, it will all work out.”
‘Contract speaks for itself’
Crowder said last week that there was no miscommunication. He said his subcontractor did exactly what was stated in the two-page contract.
“There were markers used. All of that is clearly stated in the contract,” he said.
Shields had told the newspaper that due to a “miscommunication” with the logging company, more trees were cut than expected.
“It was supposed to be a clear-cut like the overlook, but it was only supposed to go down to the first ridge. It wasn’t supposed to continue on as extensive as it was,” Shields said again last week.
At the Feb. 25 board meeting, Hahn also said that the cut was not what the board expected.
But Crowder said that’s not the case. “There was no breakdown on communication between me and anyone that I was contacting or that had contacted us.”
Crowder said the parks and recreation department identified a perimeter line and that they wanted it clear-cut within that perimeter. He said the logging area was marked with flags.
Shields said that the only markers at the site were for the communications tower. He said he had only talked to Jeff Patrick of Patrick Logging about which ridgeline to cut and it wasn’t in writing.
When reached for comment last week, Jeff Patrick said he was going to let Crowder speak on his behalf for this story.
Crowder said when he met with the parks and rec board and the commissioners, they asked him about a “communication breakdown” between a select harvest and a clear-cut.
“Up until that day, I have never heard the words mentioned of a ‘select harvest’ on that piece of property,” he said.
“It was a complete clear-cut with the exception of five trees up around the power lines.”
Any additional trees that are now left near the road are “in limbo,” Crowder said. When questions came up about the extent of the cut, the decision was made to move the logging equipment and stop the harvest “immediately,” Crowder said. The trees near the power lines would need to be removed by the power company if parks and rec chose to do so, he said.
“As the company that has made this contract, I want to stop if it’s what the people of Brown County want. I don’t want to keep doing this if this is not what the people of Brown County want,” Crowder said about the contract release.
“I am sorry that the people of Brown County — who are my family, my friends, my contemporaries — are unhappy. But I would also like it to be noted that, 3 to 1, the phone calls I get are people supporting me and supporting the project and like what they have seen. I’ve heard very little, personally, negativity about it. Those things are noteworthy.”
Seventy-five percent of the work Crowder has done for three generations has been in Brown County, he said. The company is based in Johnson County. “Brown County is very important. I have a lot of friends, I have a lot of people down there that we’ve worked for,” he said.
Crowder offered to personally fund a boardwalk or shelterhouse, similar to the Bean Blossom Overlook shelterhouse, with some benches near the logging site.
“I would like it dedicated to the people of Brown County from my company and Patrick Logging, as just an olive branch to the county,” he said — “not necessarily to the county government, but to the people of Brown County.”
‘Going to get worse’
Allison Shoaf, manager of the Brown County Soil and Water Conservation District, attended the parks and rec board meeting to present her recommendations for what to do with the logged land.
She walked the property the week prior to the meeting, after a 5-inch rainfall also soaked the area. She said it didn’t did not appear that sedimentation from the logging practice was leaving the site.
“Again, I have no baseline knowledge as what it looked like right after that, but what I saw at the time I was out there, it does not appear to be leaving the site,” she said.
Property owners on Shilo Morning Drive and who own parts of the upper and lower lakes there disagree.
“It’s ruined. I’ve been on it for 30 years. I’ve been taking care of that dam. It’s ruined,” Marc Skirvin said during the parks meeting.
Skirvin and his wife, Dana, own the dam and a large part of the lake. The lake is shared by the homeowners in that area.
“You just can tell the water is really brown. That’s usually a spring thing. It usually clears up pretty quickly, and it just hasn’t. It’s way early,” Dana said about the lower lake, which is the largest of the two and is rarely every muddy.
Marc said the water came downhill faster during flooding on Feb. 7 than it did during the Flood of 2008, “because there is nothing to stop it” after the trees were taken out.
“When it hit the lake, it hit with such force, it went under the ice and shot 30 feet straight out from the overflow,” he said.
The couple is concerned about their own property values, the health of the lakes, and how the dams will hold up with more water coming downhill.
“If they continue to not take into consideration what’s going on downstream, they could be compounding problems for everybody down Greasy Creek,” Dana said. “And who is liable for that?”
The couple recently rebuilt the dam’s overflow, which cost about $25,000. “Had we not done that, it would have blown,” Marc said.
The Skirvins also pay for certified engineers to inspect the dam every other year, which is required by Indiana Department of Natural Resources. They’re concerned about how the logging will change the flow of water.
“I was looking at the Environmental Protection Agency charts on change of flow rate. When you clear-cut, it magnifies it by 10. It wasn’t like that when it was built,” Marc said of the dam.
The Skirvins also bought up concerns about invasive plants moving into the freshly opened forest, and losing endangered plants like the whorled pogonia, a shade-loving orchid.
“Things are changing. They have changed. We’ve had six 100-year floods in the past 10 years. It’s only going to get worse,” Marc said.
‘Like chocolate milk’
Gary and Jean Brown have owned two-and-a-half acres on Shilo Morning Drive for five years. They live in Columbus, but visit often.
Before the logging, the water was “crystal clear” in the Shilo lakes. Now, Gary said both look like “chocolate milk.”
“It’s just mud. It’s never been that muddy,” he said.
“Most of the year it looks like you can drink out of it.”
Shoaf was asked at the parks meeting if she looked at the lakes. She said she was tasked with only examining the parks and rec property and she had not received permission to go on private property to look at the lakes. Gary Brown then granted Shoaf that permission.
The Shilo Morning Estates homeowners association doesn’t even allow gas-powered boats on the lakes in effort to keep them clean, Jean said.
“If you’re going to build, you’re supposed to limit what trees you take out to maintain the aesthetic value of the property,” she said. “Obviously, their goal was to create a beautiful, attractive, green place for people to live. If that lake solely just became mud, that’s going to change.”
The couple found out about the logging by reading the newspaper. “We ran up to the vista,” Gary said. “It obviously looks like bombs went off.”
“I just burst into tears because I just feel like it was beautiful. It was beautiful,” Jean said.
The couple questioned if an erosion plan was put into place before the logging occurred.
The logging company did install silt fences in the stream channels, but Shoaf said the fencing should be removed because it was not functioning well.
Gary believes that riprap — a pile of different-sized rocks used to help filter water before it goes into waterways — should have been used along with silt fencing.
The couple recently put their property up for sale and are concerned about not being able to find buyers due to the condition of the lakes.
“This is just the beginning. We haven’t got to spring yet. There’s so much coming into this. My fear is it’s going to kill the fish. Silt will completely fill in that top lake,” Gary said.
He said he contacted the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and IDEM was going to send a field investigator to take samples from the lakes.
The couple also talked with an attorney, but they are not considering filing a lawsuit at this time.
“We don’t complain. We’re not those kind of people,” Gary said. “We don’t care about the logging; that’s their property, not ours. It’s just how it’s affecting ours.”
