Welcome to the IFA
Forests are the planet's lungs. We need them. So do the flora and fauna that dwell therein. The IFA strives to see the regeneration of ancient, resilient forest ecosystems and supports the integration of human communities with forests through practices that truly sustain and provide for all.
URGENT ACTION ALERT
The Indiana DNR Division of Forestry intends on putting 105 acres of the Morgan-Monroe / Yellowwood State Forest Backcountry Area up for sale to commercial logging interests this Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 9:15 am at the Yellowwood State Forest office.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Please call Mr. John Davis, Deputy Director of the DNR at 317-232-4021 (email: jdavis@dnr.in.gov) to demand that the backcountry area logging plan be canceled.
- Please call Jim Allen, property manager of Yellowwood and Morgan-Monroe State Forests, at 812-988-7945 to demand that the backcountry area logging plan be canceled.
- Please call your fellow outdoors / forest loving friends and ask them to help protect this valuable area by calling the above numbers.
- Please join the IFA in protesting the sale at the Yellowwood State Forest Office Thursday morning at 9am. The office is located at 772 South Yellowwood Road (10 miles / 30 minutes east of Bloomington, 7 miles west of Nashville) (map).
- Contact the IFA for more information: ifa.director@gmail.com, or for car-polling info to Thursday's sale.
BACKGROUND:
The Department of Natural Resources designated the Back Country Area of Morgan-Monroe State Forest in 1981 to provide a backcountry wilderness experience for Indiana citizens in return for get a concession from conservationists for a smaller Wilderness area in the Hoosier National Forest. The intent was to show that the state could protect areas just as well as land that was put into Federal Wilderness Area protection. In previous administrations, this area was the example of an state forest that was set aside from commercial logging. Now, the particular area they intend to put on sale on Thursday contains stands of the largest and oldest trees in the Backcountry area.
The area is 3,100 acres of diverse forested area free of improved roads and none of it has been logged commercially in over 3 decades. Only 30 minutes from Indianapolis, the area provides an opportunity for hiking, backpacking, and camping in an area approaching a wilderness-type experience.
Polling has shown that the public wants to keep the backcountry area protected from commercial logging. Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) and Rep. Ralph Foley (R-Martinsville) introduced state legislation to make the backcountry area permanently off-limits to logging. The City of Bloomington passed resolution 08-06 recognizing the special value of the backcountry area and urged that it be permanently protected from commercial logging.
DNR's timber management program anticipates that areas of the state forests would be set aside for recreational, ecological, or aesthetic reasons as free from timber harvests. The Indiana Forest Alliance (IFA) maintains that commercial forestry is not compatible with the stated recreation goals of the area or the required ecological protections that the endangered Indiana Bat and other interior forest species need.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has succeeded in his plan to increase logging across the Indiana State Forest system. The logging level has increased 500 percent since he took office. This year, timber sales have taken off at a record pace seeing sales in the Ferdinand/Pike State Forest of over a million board feet and 830,000 board feet in Martin State Forest alone. If the Daniels administration is now targeting recreational areas for logging, and especially an area that they nominated as a "high value conservation forest", then the increased level of logging his administration has implemented in our public forests is clearly is not sustainable.
State Forests provide less than 1% of the total timber harvested in Indiana annually. The state as a whole has 4,820,000+ acres of forestland of which the MMSF/YSF Backcountry area is only 0.06%! Obviously commercial logging of this area isn't necessary for the health (commercial interests) of the Indiana hardwoods industry.
FURTHER REASONS TO PROTECT IT:
- The backcountry area provides a unique outdoor recreation opportunity (primitive, wilderness-like forest) within 30 minutes of Indianapolis.
- The backcountry area, if protected from logging, will mature to provide an old-growth forest ecosystem, a rare type of wildlife habitat in Indiana. Cavity nesting birds and mammals, the endangered cerulean warbler and Indiana bat, and many other wildlife species inhabit this area and would benefit from these protections.
- As part of its forest certification process, DNR nominated the backcountry area as a "high value conservation forest" on October 6, 2008.
- DNR's timber management program anticipates that areas of the state forests would be set aside for recreational, ecological, or aesthetic reasons as free from timber harvests.
The Division of Forestry has always and continues to maintain that this is an area of special habitat concern. They have even held it up as an example of forest that is not subject to commercial activity. The people of the state and region have taken it as such holding it as the heart of forest recreation areas for backpacking, hiking, trail running, bird watching, etc.
[1] Bloomington City Resolution Urging Protection of the MMSF / YSF Backcountry Area: bloomington.in.gov/media/media/application/pdf/2617.pdf
