Buffalo Springs In Peril
Kylie Boles is a Senior at Columbus Signature Academy New Tech High School in Columbus, Indiana, where this story was first published.
The Hoosier National Forest needs our help. The U.S. Forest Service wants to conduct a decades-long, destructive project called the Buffalo Springs Restoration Project. The Forest Service recently approved a huge project in the Hoosier National Forest where they will log and burn trees in the Buffalo Springs area. Logging is when a service goes through and harvests mature trees. According to the USDA Forest Service’s Programmatic Agreement document, they believe this will “promote tree growth, reduce insect and disease levels, move the landscape toward precontact [before European contact] and historic conditions, and increase the resiliency and structure of forested areas by restoring the composition, structure, pattern, and ecological processes necessary to make these ecosystems sustainable.”
Although it may seem like they’re doing this for the benefit of the forest, they’re destroying it.
This project will negatively affect all species living in the forest, including six federally listed threatened and endangered species: the Indiana bat, the gray bat, the bald eagle, and three types of mussels –- the rough pigtoe, the fanshell mussel, and the sheepnose mussel. Continuing this project will lower their chances of survival and will eventually cause extinction for some species and others in the future. The continuance of this project will harm the lives of humans, plants, and animals
Map courtesy of Indiana Forest Alliance.
According to the Indiana Forest Alliance, the Forest Service wants to build nineteen more miles of road by harvesting about 5,124 acres of the forest. Almost 15,100 acres were identified for a possible prescribed burn and around 771 acres for chemical treatment with herbicides/pesticides. Not only do they want to add nineteen more miles of road, but they also want to turn eight miles of the thirteen-mile horse trail into a gravel log road.
A passionate environmentalist, Andy Mahler, said, “We will stop this project because we have to. Not for me, but for us. For the creatures who depend on healthy forests and for future generations of humans who will thank us. The greatest threat to our National Forests isn’t fire, insects, or disease. It isn’t even the threats associated with the warming planet, which include all of the above. The greatest threat to our National Forests is the Forest Service itself!”
Although the Forest Service was created to protect our forests, it is tearing them down for their benefit. They have become reliant on the money they get from logging even though Congress has given them billions of dollars to help protect and manage our forests. Instead, they are spending the money to fund their operations, repeatedly burning and drying out the national forests of the Eastern half of the country.
Photo courtesy of Andy Mahler.
According to Mahler, “It is not about bad people doing bad things for bad reasons. It is about good people doing bad things for bad reasons. It is about bad policies and a worse incentive structure that rewards those who come up with new and creative rationalizations for cutting down OUR trees and bending themselves into logical and ethical pretzels. I feel sorry for them; but that will not stop me or the legions of other Americans who share my concerns from doing everything we can to stop their short-sighted, misguided, illogical, self-serving, and backward-looking plans.”
It all started in February of 2021 when the Forest Service released a newsletter about the beginning of their “restoration” project. They also shared a map with their areas of interest along with the newsletter. Later that year in October and November, they began a 30-day scoping of the forest and there was a 45-day period where people in the community could comment on their proposal. This year on Sept. 14, they released their final environmental assessment and draft decision notice for public view. As of right now, the project is in its pre-decisional objection phase. Their final decision is estimated to be on Dec. 1, 2024, and implemented on Jan. 1, 2025.
Protecting the Buffalo Springs area will protect not only the trees and animals living there but also the quality of the water and the forest's historical, archaeological, cultural, and recreational resources.
To help, you can donate to Protect Our Woods, PO Box 325 Paoli IN 47454
If you would prefer to donate online, please donate to Indiana Forest Alliance and Heartwood. Go to savehoosiernationalforest.com to sign up for their newsletters, and contact elected officials to voice your opinion! You can also join a Facebook group called “Save Hoosier National Forest.” Please tell your friends and family about this and ask them to voice their opinions and concerns. Share this article to get the word around; we will save our forest.
