ECOBLITZ – AN INDIANA FOREST EXPEDITION, newly published by Indiana University Press, made its way to my house, and I became totally engrossed in the tales of dozens of citizen scientists working in tandem with academics as they ranged across the Back Country Area inside the Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood State Forests from 2014 to 2019. The promotion for the book informed me upfront I’d be tagging along with “key scientists who led the surveys and the baseline they established of the species surviving today in a large century-old tract of Indiana’s State Forests, our wild heritage being eroded away by logging, human development and the climate crisis.” Reading, I became privy to their private emotions and thoughts as they re-arranged their regular routines to go sleuthing in all sorts of weather across all four seasons within a canopy of old-growth forest.
They thought they were alone ferreting out what was inside this protected place, but in 2016, loggers arrived one day with heavy machinery and proceeded to cut down swaths of ancient trees, willy-nilly killing whatever was underfoot, destroying an ecosystem of animal and plant life. When news of the massacre reached the public, an ever-increasing number of comments from Hoosiers across the state objected. Indiana Forest Alliance’s consulting ecologist, Dr. Leslie Bishop, authored a letter signed by 240 scientists from Indiana colleges and universities asking Governor Eric Holcomb to allow old-growth conditions to return to more of the state forests. “These actions compelled Holcomb to place a six-year moratorium on logging in the 50,000 acres of Yellowwood and Morgan-Monroe State Forests in 2018.” It now is 2024; Indiana’s current governor-elect is Mike Braun. Will we again rally in defense of one small space to remind us of what was here before we willy-nilly tore it all up?
This small saved space was the original homesite of the Shawanwa [Shawnee] and also of the Mosopelea, a Siouan-speaking Native American people who historically lived near the upper Ohio River. In what now is the state of Indiana lived the Twightwee [Miami], the Atchatchakangouen, Kilatlka, Mengakonkia, Pepicokia, Piankeshaw, and Waayaahtanwa. Original inhabitants of what we now call The Midwest include Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, Ho-Chunk, andMenominee. Nearby lived the Ottawa, the Ojibwe [Chippewa], Potawatomi, andAnishinaabe, who migrated west from the Atlantic seaboard, as did the Lenape [Delaware], who then escaped the Gnadenhutten massacre. Federal US government Removal Treaties at the cusp of the nineteenth century coincided with Indiana Statehood.
I have walked within the Back Country Area inside the Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood State Forests, but now I am immersed inside a deeper seeing, hearing, andfeeling alongside John A. Bacone, aretired ecologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Nature Preserves, and with Jeffrey N. Stant, executive director of Indiana Forest Alliance. Both are passionate about protecting the
Morgan–Monroe State Forest, established in 1929. It is accessed at 6220 Forest Road, in Martinsville [zip code: 46151]. The second largest state forest in Indiana, the 24,000 acres comprising this deciduous forest, was abandoned farmland after the early settlers realized that the land’s rocky soil was very poor for agricultural purposes. What we now have is a second-growth forest, and this too is under attack. “due to the advance of change, development, management practices, and disease…we have no idea what creatures we are killing and what synergies we are eliminating. Ignorance and arrogance are the greatest enemies of our forests.”
The state purchased the eroded, abandoned land to create Morgan-Monroe State Forest in 1929. In May 1933, Indiana’s first Civilian Conservation Corps camp was located in Morgan–Monroe State Forest. The Indiana Geological and Water Survey at Indiana University cites, “The Uplands region of south-central Indiana provides ample opportunities to experience the remarkable topography and physiography of the Hoosier State. This area includes the forested hills of Morgan-Monroe and Yellowwood State Forests, Lake Lemon, and other smaller nature preserves, parks, and conservation lands that offer a variety of recreational activities such as camping, boating, and biking.
“The underlying geology in this region includes the bedrock unit known as the Borden Group, which forms the steep hills and narrow valleys that will test even the most seasoned outdoor enthusiast. The northern portion of this area includes the floodplain of the White River, an area of massive glacial outwash during the last Ice Age that is covered with meander scars and abandoned channels from ancient and modern-day floods.”
Anne Laker titles her Prologue “Toward a Legible Forest.” We are introduced to a 2014 May dawn’s imagery; “The forest is cinematic, hypnotic, bursting with dimension and functional wisdom beyond the perception of most of us. What wisdom do forests know?” she posits. “They know how to live and die productively. They know mutuality, efficiency, utility…”
What follows on page 345 are the adventures of some 245 people in varying capacities—citizen scientists, academic experts, college students, andIFA staff. The teams were organized to delve into five main topics: Forest as Superorganism, Complex Cooperators, Forest as Haven, Insect Multitudes, and Forest as Spectacle, ultimately leading to Rae Schnapp’s “Full Circle” Afterword. Laker concluded, “Curious readers will find this book to be an unusual weave of data findings and character sketches, packaged for a variety of profiles, interviews, and essays.” Indeed, I was drawn into the personal connections with this space.
Rae Schnapp’s shared moment is typical of what I had been encountering over the span of pages; “One night, while I was on a spider survey,” she begins, “I was was using a flashlight to search the trees for spider eye shine, when I came face to face with a white-footed mouse on a branch. We studied each other for a moment in mutual curiosity.”
She wraps up with a summary of the 5-year Ecoblitz Forest Census:
+A rich species diversity of 3,077 species was identified, including some of the highest moth diversity in the eastern US outside of the Southern Appalachians.
+A very high floristic quality (with few non-native plants)….
+At least 188 species were identified that had never been found in Indiana before….
+At least 24 rare, threatened, or endangered species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians were identified.
+Nearly 200 distinct species (morphos species) of insects and fungi could not be identified without additional DNA sequencing analysis that was beyond the reach of this inventory.
I await a follow-up report.
There’s much more that elicited a ‘wow’ as I turned pages. Baseline: What is the foundation of a deciduous forest; what is a heritage tree; what’s inside the complexity; why should I have the remotest interest in fungi and lichens; what’s the difference between a dry forest and a wet forest; who among us goes out day or night to listen for singing insects?
I have a note on the 2025 calendar: listen for more than the zzz of bees; check out the conversation of beetles, crickets, cicadas, andkatydids. Beyond the messaging howl of wolves is the chatter of squirrels, the subtler voicing of deer; it’s as embracing as catching the interplay within a symphony and a jazz band. Forest ecology is poetic: “I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree whose hungry mouth is pressed Against the earth’s sweet flowing… Joyce Kilmer’s awe of nature is equally a metaphor for us as humans…trees too are oppressed by misguided human choices…
What have I come away with as I reach the back cover? How fortunate I am all my life to have been able to engage with the natural world. Now, what can I do to bring this gift to people who have never had this opportunity? I searched through the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis [in print and online]. Swaths of neighborhoods are tree-deficient. A young woman from a caregiving agency came to help me after I had hip replacement surgery. She walked from her car to my door. My resident chipmunk was sunning itself on the porch. She screamed, ran to her car, and locked herself in. She had never seen a chipmunk in her life. She lives in a part of Indianapolis deprived of even a tree. To her, my native flowers are abhorrent. Bees pollinating frightened her into a frenzy. She is certain birds are evil.
The leaders of this Indiana Forest Expedition include Emma Steele, Leslie Bishop, Justin Maxwell, Paul Rothrock, Linda Cole, Steve Russell, James Lendemer, Karen Smith, David Rupp, Angie Damm, Dale Sparks, Samantha Buran, Glene’ Mynhardt, Robert Jean, Carl A. Strang, Leroy Koehn, Robert Brodman, Roger Carter and Jim Horton, Leslie Bishop, John O. Whitaker. They each developed the worksites with the corps of volunteers.
The Indiana Forest Alliance is a nonprofit with a mission to preserve and restore Indiana’s hardwood forest ecosystem for the enjoyment of all. The lead writer for the project is Anne Laker. She has covered environmental policy for Howey Politics Indiana and is a published poet with an MFA in English from IUPUI.
Anne Laker responded to a Q/A:
Kohn: What more should nuvo.net readers be gaining from you beyond the printed page?
Anne Laker: I hope the Ecoblitz book will entice everybody to visit one of our Indiana state forests. State forests are way less crowded than state parks, with no entrance fees… they are closer to a state of wildness. As is the Hoosier National Forest. The Indiana Forest Alliance has always fought to keep Indiana wild! Many great hikes await.
Kohn: What enticed you to contribute chapters to this book?
Anne Laker: I was communications manager at the Forest Alliance from 2016 to 2019, so I had a front-row seat for the revealing work being done by scientists (and citizen scientists) to survey all life in one particular state forest. You cannot imagine the excitement when a lactating female bat was found! … a sign that the forest was still a good habitat for these endangered native creatures to reproduce in. That’s just one example of the wonders detailed in the book.
Kohn: What longtime caring do you bring to us?
Anne Laker: My family moved to rural Hendricks County when I was 10. There was a wooded ravine with a creek across the way. Since then, I’ve considered the woods to be an emotional harbor, a refuge full of seasonal sounds, smells, and textures, and a constant source of beauty and peace. While the Ecoblitz book focuses on the motives, the work, and the findings of intrepid entomologists, lepidopterists, herpetologists, and more, I tried to add a poetic tone in my preface to the book, trying to pinpoint the magic of an Indiana forest. It’s easy to fight for something you know and love.
Kohn: What roles have you been advocating for us collectively to undertake as citizens, parents, educators, elected officials, media advocates, community leaders, monetary enterprise leaders, etc?
Anne Laker: Over the last decade or two, the Indiana Division of Forestry has profited from allowing private logging companies to cut trees in publicly-owned Indiana forests under the guise of “forest management.” Incoming governor Mike Braun actually owns a lot of forests, and he proposed a bill in US Congress to outlaw logging in the Hoosier National Forest (which could still pass if we hurry). We should all ask Governor-elect Braun to do the same in Indiana State Forests. We, the public, own these forests, and we need to keep them wild for recreation, animal habitat, and as nature’s best “technology” for mitigating climate change. Let’s make sure Braun knows this is what we want!
“When you visit McCormick’s Creek State Park, you’ll see a huge area of fallen trees. This is damage leftover from a March 2023 tornado. There is a chance for you to get involved as a citizen scientist to help document the area as the forest regrows. This area, along Trail 5, is part of Wolf Cave Nature Preserve. Because it is a preserve, humans cannot change the area. Now, scientists have an opportunity to study how the forest regrows.
“To do this, they need the public’s help on your next hike.”
“It’s a really unique opportunity to track this for research to see what plants are going to grow up and die and become the next soil layer,” explained Jessica Filer, the park’s Interpretive Naturalist. “And what our forest will eventually mature and look like in the next 100 years.”
McCormick’s Creek State Park is Indiana’s first state park and the first state park to deal with tornado damage to this extent.
Within the busyness of living things, there can be repose and solitude.
