UK Board Urged to Block Logging
By Andy Mead, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Dec. 11–The University of Kentucky’s Board of Trustees spent more than an hour yesterday listening to pleas to block proposed research logging in Robinson Forest.
But Mira Ball, the board’s chairwoman, said afterward that there doesn’t appear to be enough sentiment to do that if the issue comes up at today’s full board meeting.
In a related area, UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. said the university had postponed sending out requests for proposals for logging companies to fell the trees. He also said he had met Friday with U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, who is opposed to the logging.
Todd made it clear, however, that he still favors allowing trees to be cut to study methods of protecting streams during logging.
"I am very aware that this is not something everyone is going to agree on," he said.
Those pleading for a moratorium on logging included students and Wendell Berry, a celebrated Henry County author who is a former UK English professor.
Berry said the project the university is considering — which could cut most trees on up to 1,000 acres of the 10,000-acre core of the Eastern Kentucky forest — is a far cry from sustainable forestry.
"It’s the difference between eating your milk cow or milking her and eating her calves," Berry said.
Others, including geography graduate student Garrett Graddy, said logging could open the forest to invasive species, including an insect that is killing hemlock trees, and increase legal pressures to mine the forest. Virtually every environmental group in the state is against the project, Graddy said.
She asked for a vote on a moratorium on the project at today’s board meeting. Students are expected to greet trustees entering the meeting to press their case.
Yesterday’s meeting was a joint assembly of the board’s student affairs and university relations committees. Other board members also attended; at least 14 of the 20 trustees were present.
Pamela Robinette May, the chairwoman of the university affairs committee, said her committee will study the issues raised yesterday, but gave no timetable for reaching a decision.
That encouraged those who want to change the status quo.
"I think the discussion is just beginning," said Chuck Clenney, a member of the school’s Green Thumb Environmental Club.
Agricultural Dean Scott Smith, whose forestry department would conduct the logging research, said the decision on what to do comes down to a question of what one thinks the land is best suited for.
"It does bother me when it is portrayed as not taking care of the land vs. taking care of the land," he said. "It is a different use of the land."
With the delay in seeking logger proposals and the weather, Smith said, it is unlikely any logging will take place until spring.
Reach Andy Mead at (859) 231-3319 or 1-800-950-6397, ext. 3319
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