Former student protests logging on public lands

Mary Demkovich, a 21-year-old former IU student, climbed up a red oak Friday -- a massive tree she named "Prometheus" -- to prevent the private logging of about 60 trees in Yellowwood State Forest in Brown County. She said she doesn't plan to leave anytime soon.\nSteven Sellers, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, said Demkovich has her facts wrong.\n"In January, 66 trees were cut down and sold," he said. "We're not planning any future logging in that area."\nAlthough Demkovich's platform is only 30 feet high, it seems higher because the oak rises up from the slope of a steep ravine that extends into a creek bed. The ravine is so steep that Demkovich's ground crew had to use a safety rope to get to the base of her tree without slipping down the precipice.\n"I don't see how it's safe to log here," Demkovich said, pointing out the obstacles of getting heavy logging equipment into the area, located about a mile down Dubois Ridge Road near the Tecumseh trailhead. \nDemkovich's tree sit comes on the heels of Tracy "Dolphin" McNeely's vigil over Brown's Woods on Bloomington's west side to prevent a middle-income housing development. While McNeely's tree sit is sponsored by Buffalo Trace Earth First!, Demkovich is not affiliated with any environmental group. But some of her environmentalist friends visit to support her. \nA more incisive difference lies in the ownership of the two tracts of land. While McNeely's tree sit is on privately owned land, Demkovich's protest is on land owned by taxpayers.\nTrees in the area with yellow marks are the "rouges" or "free trees," which will eventually be cut down for timber or telephone poles. These are either damaged trees or trees that don't grow straight.\n"It's forest maintenance," Sellers said. "In the 1800s and 1900s, Indiana didn't have any forests. The division of forests was established 100 years ago to recreate the forests, and we've managed them ever since." \nSellers said the DNR sold 18,000 of Indiana's 22 million trees, netting $860,000 to cover its operating costs.\n"We take the appropriate steps to protect wildlife habitats," he said. "And the revenue supports a wider variety of wildlife. We don't cut down any trees in our state parks, for instance."\nDemkovich said she'll stay as long as it takes for her cause to be heard.\nThe DNR doesn't intend to intervene.\n"She can stay as long as she wants," Sellers said. "It's not a crime to sit in a tree in a public forest. We're concerned for her well-being, but she's responsible for herself."\nDemkovich's words of protest fall on deaf ears. \n"We have no intention of altering our forest management practices," Sellers said. "But we appreciate what she has to say. We always appreciate input about our public forests"