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Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Environment - More on logging in state forests

"Group hopes to ax forest management plan" is the headline to a story by Jonathan Hiskes in the Brown County Democrat. A quote:

Responding to a management plan released last month by the forestry division of the Department of Natural Resources, the Indiana Forest Alliance will try to prevent the logging increase by raising enough public support to convince the state to rethink the plan, or by defeating the state in court. Two weeks ago, the group told DNR Director Kyle Hupfer and State Forester Jack Seifert it intends to sue the state government, accusing them of breaking the law by failing to listen to public input or perform a proper environmental impact study. * * *

The Indiana Chapter of the Nature Conservancy lent conditional support to the DNR’s forest management plan, surprising other conservation groups. Dan Shaver, Director of the Conservancy’s Brown County Hills Project, said his organization supported the plan because the state has said it will use increased timber revenue to further fund forest management. The Brown County Hills Projects seeks to protect 300,000 acres of forest in the area, half of which belong to the public through the state and federal governments.

“It’s a more complicated issue than conservation versus destruction. It’s based on sustaining biodiversity,” Mr. Shaver said.

He also said the Nature Conservancy wants the state to propose a more detailed plan for controlling invasive species and to seek approval from an independent environmental auditor.

Mr. Haberman said the IFA found Nature Conservancy’s support for the plan puzzling. He said he was confident the public would not accept the management plan, citing a poll that found 70 percent of Indiana residents opposed commercial logging on state forests.

“That figure is completely disregarded by the new plan,” Mr. Haberman said. “To not end logging, but increase it five times is an incredible slap in the face to the democratic process."

For earlier ILB entries, type "forest" in the search box.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 5, 2005 03:23 PM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Government