The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a timber management project that will take place on 10,000 acres of the Hoosier National Forest just south of Brown County. It’s drawing criticism from environmental advocates, residents and lawmakers in Monroe County, and it’s expected to be addressed at a Brown County Council meeting this week.

The project is called the Houston South Vegetation Management and Restoration Project EA, or the Houston Project for short. The proposal includes the the logging of trees and occasional burns in the Hoosier National Forest. Its aim is to maintain and restore sustainable ecosystems, according a draft report posted to the Hoosier National Forest’s website in November.

In specific, the proposal calls for:

• clear-cutting 401 acres to remove nonnative pine;
• harvesting 703 acres of “shelterwood” to regenerate oaks and hickories;
• thinning 2,405 acres to reduce stand density and enhance forest health;
• select-harvesting on 462 acres to promote tree growth and age class diversity;
• removing midstory trees on 234 acres to enhance light conditions below the upper canopy;
• conducting “crop tree release” on 170 acres (selectively cutting or killing less desirable trees) to increase growing space to selected trees;
• applying herbicide on 1,970 acres;
• conducting prescribed burns on about 13,500 acres over the life of the project to to create habitat conditions that are conducive to oak and hickory regeneration and reduce accumulated fuels;
• constructing 3.2 miles of new road and 8.3 miles of temporary road;
• reconstructing 4.9 miles of existing road; and
• obliterating or decommissioning 2.7 miles of road.

Two undersized culverts and one undersized concrete structure also will be replaced with appropriately sized structures for the passage of aquatic organisms, the plan says.

Hoosier National Forest District Ranger Michelle Padauni wrote in the draft report that the proposed actions will promote tree growth and reduce insect and disease levels. This would move the landscape to the HNF’s desired conditions of “maintaining four to 12 percent of the area in young forest habitat and manage the area for plant and animal habitat with a diversity of age and class and forest structure,” the draft reads.

“The proposed action will provide a mosaic of forest conditions dominated by hardwoods and restore dry hardwood forest ecosystems,” the report says, “without any significant negative effect to the human environment, including soil and water, wildlife habitat and air quality.”

Though this is the basis for the U.S. Forest Service’s project, many objections have been made due to concerns for the environment and for a hiking trail that passes through this area.

The Houston Project was mentioned a public forum in Brown County last week that focused on the Lake Monroe watershed. The project area is part of a watershed which supplies drinking water to more than 120,000 people, mostly in Monroe County.

The Monroe County Commissioners, the Monroe County Council and Bloomington mayor John Hamilton raised similar concerns in objection letters sent to Sen. Mike Braun and USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region. Their greatest concern is the threat that erosion and herbicides can pose to clean drinking water. Lake Monroe is already listed as an impaired water body by the EPA, the groups said. Erosion and herbicide use were mentioned as concerns at last week’s Lake Monroe watershed meeting at the Brown County Public Library.

The USFS reviewed a long list of public comments and made a “Finding of No Significant Impact” for the project. The FONSI report said that public health and safety will not face significant impact, and that the effect on the quality of the human environment is not expected to be controversial. The proposed action will also have no significant impact upon air quality, wetlands, soil resources, cultural resources or wilderness, the report said.

It also said that there will be no additional effects on wildlife — specifically various species of bats. However, no final decision will be made until the USFS receives a response from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Jeff Stant of the Indiana Forest Alliance argues that the Houston Project will pose threats to wildlife.

Stant also said that it will degrade values of the area that make it geographically unique, and affect the Knobstone Trail, a popular Indiana backpacking trail. The project would force the closure of Knobstone for five days each time a burn takes place, for an undisclosed period of time, Stant said.

Randall Pflueger plans to address the Brown County Council about the Houston Project’s effect on the trail at the council’s Thursday, Jan. 23 meeting, which starts at 6:30 p.m.

“The 20 years of prescribed burning and 12 to 15 of logging proposed in this project will adversely impact the serenity of the natural forested environment of this area unique in the entire lower Midwestern United States for the wilderness values it provides,” Stant said in his objection letter.

Another objector, P. David Simcox of Monroe County, argued that the forest service’s claim of “no significant impact” is “without merit.”

“Being someone who values the long-distance footpaths in Indiana, I am disappointed to see that the USFS prioritizes timber management over that form of outdoor recreation. There is no need to displace these trails for years in order to ‘manage’ the woods,” Simcox said.

The start date for the Houston Project is unknown at this time.