WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Andy Mahler on Protecting Our Woods
Burning Buffalo Springs and Beyond
In this week’s Eco Report EXTRA, Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze has a conversation with veteran grassroots activist and former host of WFHB’s flagship public affairs program ‘Interchange’, Andy Mahler, much beloved songster and tree hugger renown in the region for his decades of doggedly defending the environment, building conscious community centered on social justice and seeking harmony with natural ecosystems.
They discuss the recent listening session bequeathed by Senator Mike Braun that was supposed to be a final chance to voice concerns about the Buffalo Springs Restoration Project log and burn plan for parts of the Hoosier National Forest, but turned out to be about the beginning of public input on revising the 2006 Forest Plan on which Buffalo Springs was predicated. They also address the injunction by a Federal Judge halting a prescribed burn in Houston South, a half hour from Bloomington Indiana, over potential effects on the water quality of Lake Monroe, the area’s primary source of drinking water and the possible impact of this injunction on Buffalo Springs and the new plan being drafted for the wider Hoosier National Forest.
They also touch on government policy and financial incentives regarding logging and fire suppression, the differences between the Temperate Hardwood forests of Indiana and the situation out West of massive forest fires which have prompted the outlay of federal funds for prescribed burns all across the country.
They further discuss the diverse communities of organisms that comprise our public forests, threats to endangered species, native flora and fauna, the effects of Climate Change, ways to mitigate the worst scenarios by retaining wildlife habitat, preventing Carbon from being released by disrupting natural sequestration “entfrastructure”, the healing and edifying qualities of being in Nature, the critical importance of protecting clean water sources and the ecosystems which maintain its purity and retain moisture, thereby preventing fire hazards.
They also explore the modern mechanistic paradigm, how to reclaim lost cultural heritage and history, remarking on the legacy of Buffalo Trace, colonial conquest of the biosphere, cultures like the Druids, lessons from ancient Mesopotamian myth and archaic law tablets that regulated deforestation in some of the earliest civilizations and the balance that must be struck to prevent degradation of the human spirit and the livability of the planet for all life and future generations.
Eco Report EXTRA is a co-production of WFHB News and Public Affairs and Eco Media Center of Monroe County as part of an ongoing community media collaboration.
This episode was hosted by Zyro Roze and edited by Noelle Herhusky-Schneider.
The music featured in this episode of Eco Report EXTRA:
‘The Song of Buffalo Springs’
by Robert Hoyt
Performed by Wyatt Blankenship (with Andy Mahler leading the crowd chorus)
Performed at a public meeting with Senator Mike Braun at the Orange County Community Center in Paoli, Indiana.
