The controversial and slow-moving forest management plan inside the Hoosier National Forest hit another roadblock last week. All related activities — including timber sales, prescribed burns, road construction — have been temporarily halted by a court order.
The Houston South Project would have opened up about 13,500 acres of the Hoosier National Forest to prescribed burning, 4,000 acres to logging, 2,000 acres to herbicide application and 400 acres to clearcutting.
Opponents of the Houston South Project, who have been tangled up in a legal battle with the United States Forest Service since 2020, say this ruling is a meaningful step in the right direction. The USFS declined to comment and instead directed IndyStar toward the United States Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Groups like the Indiana Forest Alliance and Friends of Lake Monroe have argued that cutting, spraying and burning on the steep slopes in the project area could lead to pollution runoff into the nearby South Fork Salt Creek watershed, which flows into Lake Monroe. Pollution in the reservoir could jeopardize drinking water quality and public health for the 130,000 people in the Bloomington area.
“It’s a huge win for drinking water quality, which means it’s a win for residents. It’s a win for visitors. It’s a win for businesses. It’s a win for Indiana University,” said Julie Thomas, a Monroe County Commissioner. “I mean, what do we do without our water supply?”
The Monroe County Board of Commissioners and the Hoosier Environmental Counsel joined the IFA and Friends of Lake Monroe as plaintiffs on the suit that led to the project’s temporary freeze.
Ruling finds USFS violated NEPA
Chief Judge Tanya Pratt of the United States District Court, Southern District of Indiana halted the project after finding that the USFS violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in failing to consider the potential environmental impacts of the plan, according to the September 18 ruling.
The NEPA requires federal agencies like the USFS to take a detailed look at the possible environmental impacts of proposals like the Houston South Project.
And while the USFS has repeatedly asserted the agency’s “best management practices” during activities like logging and prescribed burns in the Houston South area will minimize or eliminate any significant environmental impacts to Lake Monroe, Pratt wasn’t convinced they gave the situation a hard look.
The research the USFS relied on to promote best management practices as a solution was “entirely misplaced,” according to Pratt’s ruling. The studies the defendants cited were outdated, vague, and critically, site-specific — to other locations.
“The Forest Service’s selective and incomplete citations to [best management practice] literature show that the Forest Service took more of a cursory glance at the effectiveness of its [best management practices] rather than a hard look,” Judge Pratt wrote in the ruling.
Jeff Stant, the former executive director of IFA, agrees that the USFS did not prove its case.
The USFS said “there will be no significant impact on Lake Monroe without doing the analysis to support that statement,” Stant told the IndyStar. “You don’t just broad brush the efficacy of [best management practices] by saying they always work…You have to have the data that’s based on something relevant to that site.”
The USFS’s order to halt all activities related to the Houston South Project will stand until a remedy is decided by the Court, a process which could take months or longer.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Sophie Hartley is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach her at sophie.hartley@indystar.com or on X at @sophienhartley.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Judge temporarily pauses logging and prescribed burning in Hoosier National Forest
Reporting by Sophie Hartley, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
