To the editor:

Two weeks or so ago, while was visiting my elderly parents in Nashville, I had to take their dog to the vet in Bean Blossom. While driving on Bean Bean Blossom ridge, I became sickened and horrified by a tremendously ugly site — the clear-cut scar on the southern face of Bean Blossom ridge — off of State Road 135.

Any reasonable person would be disgusted by this extremely poor land management decision by the (I found out later) Brown County Parks and Recreation Department (When did they become loggers?)

I grew up in Brown County and graduated from Brown County High School (Class of 1977). I am a hydrologist and worked for the National Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey for more than 25 years. However, you don’t need to be a hydrologist to know that it was a terrible idea to clear-cut this especially steep hillside. Downstream from the sites, eroded sediments have probably choked and acidified streams and lakes in the valley, killing fish and upsetting delicate ecological balances. Studies have shown that clear-cutting causes severe erosion, destroys soil water holding capacity and structure, acidifies soil and water, and depletes the soil of basic nutrients limiting future plant growth of especially of sensitive species (Valinpour et al, 2018). It will likely take many decades and potentially even a century before significant re-vegetation (trees) can occur.

This is not an especially good look for Brown County to demonstrate how much forests and nature are valued — tourism be damned? Was an environmental impact assessment done? I doubt it. Has the Brown County Parks and Recreation Board and/or Indiana DNR slipped so badly that anything goes as long as it produces revenue? It looks like it to me.

(Information used on clear-cutting from: Valipour, M., Driscoll, C. T., Johnson, C. E., Battles, J. J., Campbell, J. L., & Fahey, T. J. (2018). The application of an integrated biogeochemical model to simulate dynamics of vegetation, hydrology and nutrients in soil and stream water following a whole-tree harvest of a northern hardwood forest. Science of The Total Environment, 645, 244-256. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.066.)

Christy Crandall, Tallahassee, Florida

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