Friday, Dec. 9, 2016

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Friday, Dec. 9, 2016 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

Unrest in the forest

IDS NOBLE GUYON | IDS

Loggers Kevin Pool, center, and Gary Watkins look up at the canopy for the next tree to cut at a logging site on the east side of Indianapolis on Dec. 2. “I’m always looking up,” Pool said. “You see that? That’s what they call a widow maker.”

Amid rising deforestation, Brown County logger defends responsible practice By Alexa Chryssovergis aachryss@indiana.edu | @achryssovergis

When he finally saws through the last fibers, the great beast starts to fall. Before the oak hits the ground, Kevin Pool drops the chainsaw and runs like hell in the opposite direction, boots crunching, body jolting. The tree hits the forest floor with a booming thud, and its branches thrash out, forcing leaves on the ground to burst in a flurry. A grin breaks across Pool’s face. Out of harm’s way. Pool’s career has spanned 30 years and about 30,000 logged trees, but every time he cuts another big one, he still has to run. On this Friday morning in early December, Pool and another logger are felling trees in some woods outside of Indianapolis’ east side. But they’re not going to remove the logs today. Pool knows it’s too muddy to use his heavy equipment, for fear of ripping up the soft earth. Being a logger, there’s always more to learn. Pool, 47, has to know how to cut timber so that its fall doesn’t crush smaller trees. He has to know how to operate his heavy, dangerous machinery, like bulldozers and grapple skidders. He has to know what different types of wood will be worth, how to identify a mature tree from a young one, how to clean up his messes when he’s done. He should be fit, and not too heavy, but not too scrawny, either.

“You gotta be part Tarzan, part Einstein, mostly Jesus Christ,” Pool says. “And if everything works out for you, you’ll survive.” Throughout his career, Pool’s been trying to do the job as responsibly as he can. But these days, logging is more controversial than ever. There’s a war raging over Indiana’s forests, and Pool’s in the middle. * * * The war is about politics, nature, money. Some want to preserve the forest’s beauty while others want to capitalize on its wealth. Some think the forest should be maintained and altered to help its growth while some others think it should be left untouched. On one side, loggers tell tales of protesters throwing Coke cans at their heads, cussing them out, urinating on their expensive equipment. On the other, protesters tell tales of their hikes being disrupted by ugly swaths of brown and gray devastation. They watch what is practically their backyard disappear before their eyes. They put their forest treks on hold while trails close for weeks at a time. Since 2001, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has been steadily increasing the amount of trees it sells to loggers to cut down. The money loggers pay for the trees at sales each year has increased five-

Team collaborates in new emergency management plan By Emily Miles elmiles@iu.edu | @EmilyLenetta

A subject with a gun fled toward campus Aug. 19, tornado warnings flashed on phones and buses Aug. 24, and a student was robbed near Dunn’s Woods on Sept. 27. Meanwhile, IU-Bloomington Emergency Management and Continuity was a one-man show. “That got old real quick,” EMC director Ken Long said. Long has been with the department since its formation and has served as assistant director, but the director position and being alone were new to him. He needed a team. Steve Balko, who worked as an emergency management coordinator during the beginning of the semester at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, came down to help

plan residence hall evacuation drills. He would soon be Long’s assistant director. Alison Sinadinos, who worked as an IU assistant residence manager, learned about security planning and worked with IU Police Department and crisis management in her time at Forest Quad. She would soon be one of Long’s emergency management coordinators. Jim Garlits, who had recently retired after 20 years with the National Guard, understood the mechanics of emergency management. He would soon be the other coordinator. The new team officially assembled Oct. 17. Now, several weeks into working together, they’ve settled into a collaborative dynamic.

AN EVENING WITH

E ON SAL

TODAY!

SEE EMERGENCY, PAGE 6

NEIL G DE RASSE

TYSON

fold, from slightly more than half a million dollars in 2001 to just less than $3 million in 2015. The total number of trees sold in 2015 is almost six times as many as were sold less than two decades before. The economic impact of Indiana’s forest and hardwood industry comes to a grand total of $13.5 billion, according to a June 2016 report done by the DNR Division of Forestry and the Indiana Department of Agriculture. In total, the industry employs 30,845 people. Pool’s been around to watch the changes roll in. Ever since his father opened up Helmsburg Sawmill in 1973, Pool’s whole family has been a part of the profession. The mill, in Nashville, Indiana, and this job have been his entire life, and he’s been working as a logger full time since he was 17. Some of the biggest changes he’s seen have come in the form of the politics. It’s the increase in the number of trees cut down in state forests, the DNR foresters who designate huge swaths of Indiana state forests for clearcutting, which is where loggers who contract with the DNR saw down every tree from one segmented bit of land rather than picking and choosing. Pool and his crew don’t do excessive clearcuts or leave behind messes like inexperienced loggers may. He’s built a respectable name in this business. Logging opponents say the changes began with past SEE LOGGING, PAGE 6

Painting group celebrates Bicentennial, community By Sanya Ali siali@indiana.edu | @siali13

The Bloomington Watercolor Society and the Monroe County History Center are teaming up to present a series of works celebrating the Indiana Bicentennial and the variety that exists in the aesthetic of Bloomington. “We Paint ... the Bicentennial,” a collection of watercolor works inspired by the state’s 200th year, opens at 5 p.m. Friday in the Monroe County History Center. The reception is open to the public and will include music by IU cellist Claire Solomon. Tricia Wente, one of the show’s coordinators and member of the watercolor society, said the show recently switched venues from the City Hall Atrium and she is excited to see the works surrounded by artifacts in SEE PAINT, PAGE 6

KATELYN ROWE | IDS

Members of the Bloomington Watercolor Society listen to various committee members that spoke on the state of the group during a meeting on Sept. 12 at First Christian Church.

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