Thank you for the enlightening article “Old growth, new battle,” Aug. 20. It’s alarming to think that the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has taken the position that the backcountry wilderness areas of the Morgan Monroe State Forest need to be managed. It makes no sense. The terms backcountry and wilderness area imply a truly natural habitat unmolested (and unmanaged) by man. The proposal to harvest trees from these areas leads me to question the integrity of the DNR. It would be impossible to harvest trees without destroying the entire wilderness concept. Are all of Indiana’s state forests to be used simply as tree farms for Indiana’s lumber industry?

Most people would agree that reasonable logging of forested lands is inevitable. Forest management is, without question, an important and necessary step for preserving the general forests of our state. Not so for areas set aside as backcountry wilderness.

John Seifert, director of Indian’s Division of Forestry for the DNR, said, “We’re not going to deny the visual impact is there” (when talking about the initial logging). But in six months to a year, you’re going to have a new forest starting." The words new and forest don’t seem to be in harmony. It takes scores, even hundreds of years to grow a forest.

I don’t want to start a new forest. I want the old forests. I want the old-growth areas left alone. If the DNR allows this logging to occur, we will never be able to replace the wilderness areas and the old trees.

Dan Cecil

Greenwood