More than a year ago, a valley of trees was cut along State Road 135 North, gaining statewide media attention as people drove by and wondered what happened.

Many tree parts are still on the ground, but more greenery is starting to pop up.

Logging took place in February 2019 on land owned by Brown County Parks and Recreation, on the opposite side of the highway from the expansive overlook that was cleared in 2018.

According to a contract signed between parks and rec and Crowder Hardwood Properties LLC in December, parks and rec received $13,000 for the logging in the valley and across the road at the picnic area above the overlook.

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The money from the cut went to the department’s non-reverting capital fund.

Now that more than a year has passed, Brown County Parks and Recreation Director Mark Shields said he would have done some things differently.

“I definitely see it as a difficult time, for sure,” he said of the past year.

When the cut first happened, there was confusion on who was responsible, with some residents saying the Brown County Commissioners should have had oversight on the cut.

Last year, County Attorney Jake German said the parks board has the statutory authority to enter into contracts, and the board is not required to get approval from the commissioners beforehand.

Last week, county commissioner Diana Biddle said lessons had been learned in the year since the cut happened.

“We have to keep as many eyes on a project as we can to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks, that there’s no unintended consequence of someone’s words being misunderstood,” she said.

“It’s more specific communication, which we try to do anyway.”

Shields said there are currently no policies or protocols in place to prevent future miscommunications, but that he would be hesitant to do “much of anything unless there was a complete community engagement on it.”

After the cut happened, Shields told the newspaper at the time that the logging was more drastic than what the department had expected.

He had signed a contract with the logging company on behalf of the parks department in December 2018, but it did 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 say that the parks department would receive $13,000 in full at contract signing, including work done in the valley and across the road at the picnic area above the overlook.

Shields had told the newspaper that due to a “miscommunication” with the logging company, more trees were cut than expected.

G.R. Crowder, the agent for Crowder Hardwood Properties LLC, had said that there was no miscommunication. He said his subcontractor did exactly what was stated in the two-page contract.

Residents living below the clear cut on Shilo Morning Drive said the logging caused sediment to enter the upper and lower lakes there, turning them into “chocolate milk.”

A parks and rec board meeting in February 2019 drew a crowd of about 25 people who were upset about the logging and had questions.

During the following summer, Shilo Morning Drive residents and other citizens concerned about the logging packed the parks and recreation office at Deer Run Park again. But due to a possible threat of litigation, the board was advised to not answer questions from the public.

As of deadline, no lawsuits have been filed regarding the cut.

Receiving input

Earlier this year, a radio tower was built above the Bean Blossom overlook near the land that was cut. Plans for the tower did not include the large cut in the valley and only required clearing a spot for the tower itself.

The tower was funded with part of a $2 million capital improvement bond. Within the budget for that project, Biddle said money was set aside for landscaping around the fence surrounding the tower.

Around 104 chestnut trees were planted on the slope southwest of the tower, costing $2,000.

The trees were going to be sold as part of a fundraiser, but local landscaper Todd Baker approached Biddle about buying the trees instead to plant near the tower and valley.

“It was good stock. They were bigger trees, like, I think five years old. They weren’t just twigs. They were good, nice trees,” Biddle said.

Baker and his crew planted the trees about a month ago, Biddle said last week.

“Since we had money set aside for that already, then this opportunity with these chestnut trees came available, the timing was right and everything just worked together,” she said.

Baker also provided a month of watering. Out of the trees planted, Baker had told Biddle he’s only had to replace one.

Other plans for landscaping include planting grasses and yellowwood trees closer to the tower later this spring.

Last week, Shields said the parks and rec board had not decided to plant any more trees in the area based on recommendations from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry, the Nature Conservancy and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

“Once an area has been cleared, those species are going to come in and basically overshadow anything you plant within the first year or two,” he said.

Biddle said the commissioners are “going to try and give it (the logged area) as much help as we can.”

“I really seriously do want to plant a good size span of yellowwoods up there because I think it would be a responsible thing to do, to kind of help jump-start it a little bit,” she said.

The discussion on what to do with the logged areas was brought up this past February at the parks and rec board meeting. New parks board member Robert Sloman said he was concerned that waiting for regrowth to happen in the area would result in scrubs growing instead of trees, and that if the department planted trees up there, it would show they are being proactive.

Board member Kara Hammes said it’s more important to control invasive plants in that area than to plant trees, after discussions with DNR and the Nature Conservancy. She is also the Health and Human Sciences & Ag and Natural Resources Purdue Extension educator for Brown County.

“It’s not a popular thing to say, but the fact that it was totally cut, not just marketable timber, it left it in a better place to regrow the species you would want to regrow,” she said.

“Normally, if you’re cutting marketable trees, you’re leaving the sick, diseased trees that then makes it harder for stuff to regrow from that understory.”

Shields agreed that regrowth will happen in the area, including oak trees that will grow from acorns. He said yellowwood trees are “extremely finicky” to plant. “That’s part of the reason why there are not many of them,” he said.

Hammes encouraged the board to look into having a forester or someone from the Nature Conservancy look at the area and investigate invasive species to see what their recommendations would be for the year.

Last spring, Dan Shaver with the Nature Conservancy spoke with the board about placing the nearly 160 acres of the State Road 135 North overlook properties into the conservancy’s Forest Bank program. No decision has been made yet by the board on that offer.

At the February meeting, parks board member John Kennard said it was important to consult with foresters before any decisions are made about the area. “We don’t need another issue,” he said.

“We’ll get the input from these folks, but ultimately Brown County owns this property,” Sloman added.

Last week, Shields said no decisions would be made about the area without community input. He added the board is going to get involved with the Enhancing the Value of Public Spaces program through Purdue Extension, which looks at the county’s assets and what the public would like to see done with those areas.

“The goal is, once everything sort of calms down with the pandemic, we would look at trying to engage community citizens and kind of getting some opinions on what people would like to see, whether it be trails, let it go back to nature, and other ideas potentially,” he said.