Wayne Allen
PDT Staff Writer
The Save Our Shawnee Forest Organization is planning to submit thousands of surveys to Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday that call on the state to stop clear-cutting activities in Shawnee State Forest.
“Over the summer of 2012, members of Save Our Shawnee Forest Organization collected over 3,300 surveys asking Governor Kasich to stop the destructive clear-cut logging activities in Shawnee State Forest,” said William Tipton, spokesman for the Save Our Shawnee Forest Organization. “On Wednesday, Feb. 20 representatives of the organization will present the surveys to Governor Kasich in Columbus.”
Tipton said surveys were collected at the Scioto County Fair, Conservation Fair, John Simon’s Sorghum Festival and the Adams County Fair.
“The surveys showed almost 100 percent of the people support our concept of asking the governor to stop the clear-cutting in Shawnee State Forest. Our survey listed 29 things that people can do in the forest such as hiking, automobile tours, horseback ridding, camping, fishing and a number of other things. Those are the things people want to see the forest used for,” Tipton said.
The other side of the argument is the financial benefit brought to area communities and local school districts through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources via the logging operations in Shawnee State Forest. In October of 2012, ODNR’s Division of Forestry presented a check for $404,896 to Scioto County, along with Brush Creek, Morgan, Nile, Rarden and Union townships, as well as Northwestern and Washington-Nile local school districts.
Tipton said the hoped result of presenting the governor with the surveys is to have him stop clear-cutting activities in all of the state forests, not just Shawnee State Forest.
“We concentrate on Shawnee State Forest because this is where we live and this is the forest we know about. But, this (clear-cutting) is going on at all 21 of our state forests. We want to make sure the governor is fully aware of the amount of clear cut logging going on in the forest, how it’s been expanded and how it’s effecting our forest,” Tipton said.
For more information about the Save Our Shawnee Forest Organization, visit their website at www.saveourshawennforest.org.
Wayne Allen may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 228, or tallen@civitasmedia.com.
People say, 'well it grows back'. Yeah? It won't within my lifetime.
Do we like the greedy nature of our elected leaders? I sure don't.
Oh, but their doing it to bring back oak trees. yeah...right. Those oaks grow slower than anything else, and new saplings would just get smothered by all the new growth. Oh, and that new growth btw, will be overcrowded, and produce thin, spindly, little trees.
This needs to be stopped! And if you're not sure where you stand on this, go look at it.