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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 3, 2006
STORY INN SAVES FOREST FOR THE TREES
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Depression-era Timber Will Be Used to
Restore Historic Buildings
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The shrill sound of a
chainsaw biting into live wood is hardly music to the ears of most
environmentalists. But Rick Hofstetter is not like most
environmentalists.
“A tree is a beautiful
thing, and I cringe at the thought of one being cut down” He confesses.
“I’ve literally planted thousands of seedlings myself. They fix carbon
and cool the planet, and create habitat for creatures big and small”.
But Hofstetter sees nothing wrong with the logging that is going on at
Story, Indiana, right above the venerable Story Inn.
Standing on a hillside
above this historic Hoosier hamlet, he points to a grove of Jack Pines,
planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. “These pines are not native to Indiana”, he
observes. “They were planted here for the dual purpose of containing
soil erosion and providing fast-growing lumber. They have all matured,
but failed to reproduce, as you can see from the understory, which
consists exclusively of domestic hardwoods”.
Hofstetter, an
environmental lawyer and the owner of the Story Inn, has hired Dean
Manuel, a local farmer, to selectively harvest the Jack Pines. Starting
on December 4, he and his five children will cut and drag them from the
hillside by draft horse, and mill the logs into boards onsite. After a
few months of drying in his barn, Hofstetter plans to use the lumber to
refurbish the rooms at the Story Inn.
“This is a gift from our
impoverished grandparents” Manuel says. “And what a wonderful gift it
is”.
It is a gift that can
only be claimed by this generation. “Look around you. The pines are
top-heavy and have a shallow root structure, and as you can see, the
slightest breeze will bring them down. The forest floor is littered
with the carcasses of these pines. They’ll all be gone anyway by
natural attrition in 15 years or so” says Manuel.
So is harvesting the
trees better than letting them decompose and return to the soil?
“Absolutely” says Hofstetter. “Growing timber fixes carbon from the
air. Rotting timber returns carbon to the air. By using timber for
construction, we are sequestering that carbon, while putting it to good
use. Moreover, the young understory of trees fixes carbon five times
faster than these old giants. They grow much faster with the canopy
opened to the sun. We are returning the forest to the species the
settlers found here.” To complete the forest's recovery from its
clear-cutting by European settlers a century ago,
Hofstetter has strewn more than a thousand seeds of the American Black
Walnut over the same hillside.
This is Hofstetter’s
second harvest of Jack Pines. Last year, he took enough to restore the
interior of the Old Mill, a 19th century grain mill at the
Story Inn which now serves as a banquet hall. Hofstetter turned the
restoration project over to Rob Rogers, a local carpenter and artist,
who installed the aromatic beams and paneling with old-fashioned pegs.
“I wanted to make a lasting contribution to this place” says a satisfied
Rogers. “This timber has never left Story, and it never will”.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Rick Hofstetter
(812) 988-2273
storyinn.com
Additional resources:
The Story Inn
One inconvenient location since 1851.
(800) 881-1183
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