Anne Laker of Indiana Forest Alliance leans on a large burr oak in an area of Crown Hill Cemetery that has been sold for development. Photo courtesy Indiana Forest Alliance.
For the third time in 11 years, the oldest forested section of Crown Hill Cemetery is under threat of development.
Instead of apartment buildings, condos and retail, this time Crown Hill has sold 14.75 acres to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration. The property will allow for the expansion of Crown Hill National Cemetery and development of a columbarium, a specialized burying ground for cremated remains of about 25,000 veterans.
Crown Hill Woods Organizing Meeting
A community conversation to protect
the North Woods at Crown Hill Cemetery
6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016
40 W. 40th St., Indianapolis
Bids were to be let before the end of the year. An environmental analysis has been done by the federal government, which found no impact on the acreage. The area is the cemetery’s northern border and runs along 42nd Street between Clarendon and Michigan Road.
Area of Crown Hill Cemetery with 300-year-old trees. Photo courtesy Indiana Forest Alliance
How the government reached a no-impact conclusion is a mystery. The plot, which is surrounded with dense honeysuckle shrubs and other weedy plants, holds dozens of centuries-old trees, including a 300-year-old burr oak.
Crown Hill and the National Cemetery Administration propose pretty much clear cutting the land and replanting 2-inch caliper trees as replacements. The size of those trees is 2-inch diameter at chest height, a far cry from the massive girth of 300-year-old specimens. To add to the irony, the National Cemetery Administration has started a drive to raise funds for the tree replacement.
Environmentalists and neighbors are upset about this whole process, because there was little public notice and no public hearing. A legal notice ran in the newspaper and there was something posted on the National Cemetery Administration’s website, but those are not places where people check regularly, said Jeff Stant, executive director of Indiana Forest Alliance.
This is believed to be the largest stand of older growth forest in the county, he said. When he met with the VA and the cemetery officials, “the drawings were totally different than what we thought they were planning to do,” Stant said.
Crown Hill did talk to some neighbors, said Rebecca Dolan, a professor at Butler University and director of the Friesner Herbarium on campus. But the plan presented did not indicate the trees would be taken down, she said.
What can we do? We can write our representatives in Washington and ask them to intercede on our behalf, said Dolan and Stant. Intervention by U.S. Sens. Joseph Donnelly and Dan Coats and U.S. Reps. Susan Brooks and Andre Carson will be required to hold a public meeting, they said.
Dolan said there is clear, grassy land at 42nd Street and Clarendon, which is primarily used as a parking lot for visitors to Penrod Arts Fair at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
The older growth forested land is an indelible link to our past and heritage, and needs to be protected, Stant said.
This is a travesty. Honor the old growth forest and then honor our soldiers in another area that is deemed suitible and worthy of their sacrifice to our freedom.
How about scattering the cremains in the forest? Then people could look up at these majestic trees and know that they all had a little bit of help growing by the added medium of ashes and bone. What greater honor than to be part of a living memorial?