ECI Testifies against Buffalo Springs Project
The US Forest Service announced late last year a project to clear cut, burn, and spray pesticides and/or herbicides over more than 15,000 acres of our Hoosier National Forest. This plan, known as the Buffalo Springs Proposal, would be the largest scale incursion on this land since colonization. Our objections to the Buffalo Springs is rooted in the forest’s critical role in mitigating climate change. Mature trees absorb and store vast amounts of carbon, making it them a cost effective and essential tool in addressing carbon emissions.
The Hoosier National Forest is estimated to store about 10 million metric tons of carbon. That’s the annual emissions of about 2.5 million cars.
Indiana is currently churning out 111.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from our energy sector alone. That is 10 times more than HNF can absorb, and every year!
It defies sense that while we debate extensively burning our forest, Indiana is about to inject millions of tons of liquid CO2 into the subsurface pore space of NWI and East Terre Haute at great expense and energy burden to combat our emissions.
This is a crisis. The most recent IPCC report did not mince words, that the actions we take today to face greenhouse gas emission will be felt for thousands of years, if not forever. We are unmaking the world we love with every small and large choice, and this is one of the larger.
This Buffalo Springs proposal would set our entire region back from preparing for the impacts of climate change. The forest acts as a natural barrier that can mitigate the impact of extreme weather events, such as flooding and landslides. The trees and vegetation in the forest also help to prevent erosion and maintain soil health. As we face increased spring and summer rains, as projected by the Purdue Climate Change Impact Assessment Reports, as well as high summer heat, we will desperately need dense, diverse, and old growth forests to provide these water and heat sinks.
We have serious concerns for the underlying assumptions in these forest management plans, as they ignore much of the data driven support new methods of forest conservation. While some of the tools discussed for conservation have their place, this plan is truly drastic, extensive, with massive impacts on air and water quality, in addition to emissions.
We need to act swiftly to reject this proposal, revisit the Land Management Plan that incorporates a newer understanding of climate’s role on our region. We have an opportunity and obligation to revisit our relationship to these natural resources in light of new research, changing selective pressures, and our need to protect public and planetary health.
Please reach out, with your own objections to this Buffalo Springs Proposal, to Gina Owens, at the USFS: Gina.Owens@usda.gov