The Hoosier boasts spectacular fall foliage. Photo © Christopher Jordan
In a state dominated by fields of corn and soybeans, urban areas, factories and developments—and famous for the roar of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway—the Hoosier National Forest provides an oasis of sharp ridges, streams, lakes, towering hardwoods and an extensive karst cave system.
At 200,000 acres, the Hoosier is relatively small in the scope of public wildlands, but its recreation opportunities draw plenty of urban visitors to the state parks, forests and reservoirs within its boundaries. Favorite sites, such as Hardin Ridge, are crowded during summer and fall months, and it was recently recognized as one of the “Top 100 Family Campgrounds” by ReserveAmerica, a campground reservation program.
Despite the high number of visitors, it’s still possible to find solitude in the Hoosier. Hemlock Cliffs is populated with rare hemlock trees and boasts waterfall vistas, but it’s bypassed by the road and is accessible only to walkers. Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest is dominated by huge hardwoods and black walnut trees. Many people drive by, says U.S. Forest Service Forest Planner Judi Perez, “but never stop to see it.” And the 13,000–acre Charles C. Deam Wilderness area, established in 1982, is the only federally designated wilderness area in Indiana, and the largest of its kind in the Midwest. “This is the one place in the state to really get way out of town,” says frequent visitor Eric Thiel.
The Hoosier became part of the National Forest System in 1935, after the Depression forced many small farmers off the land. Much of the area had been stripped of trees, and soils were badly degraded from agricultural use. The Forest Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps joined forces to restore the lands. Today, the forest is home to endangered, threatened and sensitive species, including the bald eagle, Indiana and gray bats, and fanshell and rough pigtoe mussels.
Perez and Forest Supervisor Ken Day, with input from the public, recently completed a Forest Management Plan revision that protects endangered and sensitive species, as well as the forest’s karst systems—regions of limestone with subterranean streams dominated by sinkholes, large springs and caves.
But according to Perez, who wrote most of the revision, the plan’s major focus is developing early successional habitat for threatened native and desired nonnative species by opening certain portions of the forest. Developing early habitat—forest areas that include young oaks, walnuts and other hardwoods—will provide better conditions for sensitive species like the yellow–breasted chat, American woodcock and ruffed grouse, which have all shown declines in population.
To create early habitat, older trees must be logged to make room for young hardwoods. A provision to allow such logging was included in the 1991 management plan, but it was never implemented.
“The Hoosier has been very good over time at amending the plan to keep it updated, but one thing they weren’t real successful at was implementing it—they seemed to get tied up in appeals and litigations all the time,” Perez says. As a result, management mostly focused on recreation and trail work.
That’s just fine with Hoosier Environmental Council executive director Tim Maloney, whose group offered input during the public comment period for the current revision.
“Logging is one of our main concerns [with the plan] and not something we think ought to be happening there.”
Public forests are places to preserve a naturally functioning landscape for the benefit of forest plants and animals, and for outdoor recreation, Maloney says. He says there are enough areas of early successional habitat in private forests, and that it’s not necessary to create them on the Hoosier.
Franklin Lewis, public affairs officer for the Hoosier, says that idea isn’t totally accurate.
“A lot of private land is in grass, and we need young forested land. We cut so little timber [in the Hoosier] in the last fifteen years, it didn’t provide for the early–growth forest,” Lewis says.
More than 90 percent of logging in Indiana is done on private land, although Governor Mitch Daniels began pushing this year for increased logging on state–owned forests.
According to Perez, some private landowners high–grade their forests—cutting the most valuable trees like oak, cherry and walnut—instead of selectively managing them for different habitat types and quality.
“They tend to use that [top–quality timber] as a college fund—when the tuition bill comes up they think, “I’m going to take that big walnut,’” she says.
If not carefully done, high–grading leaves weaker, less desirable trees, and the forest’s gene pool becomes weakened, Lewis says.
Perez hopes that the revised plan for early succession habitat will improve the numbers of the species that depend on that ecosystem. Because those numbers have shrunk, some may need to be reintroduced.
But Maloney, whose group was part of an informal coalition proposing an alternative approach, would prefer little or no management on the Hoosier. His plan calls for an end to commercial activities, including logging, on the forest.
According to both Lewis and Perez, only a small amount of forested land would be available for logging annually. Of the Hoosier’s 200,000 acres, 41 percent, or 82,000 acres, would be available for early succession habitat or timber management. Even–aged management—taking down older trees of the same approximate age and size —would be allowed on 200 acres per year. Total logging, including salvage, would be allowed on 6,800 acres over a 10–year period.
The amount of projected logging is essentially the same as before the revision, Lewis says, only this time they hope to actually implement the plan.
Maloney has heard the arguments justifying logging, but he is disturbed by features in the revision that allow for very intensive logging on some acreage. “We think the arguments are not at all well developed,” he says. “The science information out there does not dictate that kind of management response.”
He says the Hoosier is getting older, has become habitat for hundreds of different plant and animal species and should be treated differently than private, commercially managed lands.
“We still have a lot of concerns about the forest plan and some of the philosophy behind it.”