Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1916 — FORESTS FAST DISAPPEARING [ARTICLE]

FORESTS FAST DISAPPEARING

Stats Park Ccmmittsa Inlands to Preserve Them For the Future. Unless decisive steps are taken by the people of Indiana, the chief crime of the state's second century is going to be the destruction of the forests and much of the scenic beauty. That this is not a false prophecy is shown through reports which the Indiana State, Park committee, of the Indiana Centennial commission, has, gathered from over the state. This intorina* tion is that there are very few \yoodland tracts to be found in the condition that Nature created them. The giant oaks, black walnuts and poplar trees have become so scarce that they are about as expensive as mahogany when they are made into lumber. And they grow scarcer every year, for timber men are buying up these stately old trees wherever they can be obtained, paying great prices for them. It is not uncommon for a large black walnut tree to -sell for $2,000 as it stands in the forest, and they are difficult to obtain at that price. The rugged rocky scenery is going about the same way that the fine old forest trees have gone. One of the most beautiful scenic spots’in central Indiana has in recent years been blasted to pieces and its sandstone granulated into ballast for a railroad bed. Where the stony scenery is of the right quality, and there is much of it in various sections of the state, being turned into cement for walks and buildings in cities and towns. But under the plans of the state park committee this destruction of Indiana’s scenic beauty is to come to an end. The committee is endeavoring to gather in every .city and town a subscription fund that will make a great sum with which to purchase scenic tracts and preserve them forever as state parks, How many tracts can be acquired can be determined only after the committee knows how much money the public will give. But after the committee has exhausted its funds, it will gather up the civic forces of Indiana behind a great movement that will ask the legislature in 1917 to take up the state park project and develop it further. There is enough scenic beauty spots in Indiana to provide about 200 parks, and many years may be required to develop thje full system.