Vic Ryckaert

vic.ryckaert@indystar.com

Indianapolis protesters on Monday won a round in a fight to save an old-growth forest from a Veterans Affairs project.

Cheers erupted from about two dozen people massed near a construction entrance to the 15-acre forest on the north side of Crown Hill cemetery after hearing word that the VA had ordered crews to hold off cutting trees, some of which are believed to be hundreds of years old. The VA is planning a monument to hold veterans' urns.

"Sometimes it takes people who are willing to stand out in the cold," said Russ Sipes, an attorney who filed an unsuccessful federal lawsuit seeking to stop the construction project on the site near 42nd Street and Clarendon Road.

"This whole process was messed up in the beginning because the VA didn't give enough public notice to people."

Lanette Erby Abbott was among about 12 people who jumped a chain-link fence and moved logs onto the entrance's gravel road. Abbott's left arm was stuffed into a plastic pipe and handcuffed to the right arm of Lori Perdue. Both said they had no plans to leave.

"We're awaiting confirmation on the length of the stop-work order," Abbott said. "This fight is still not over."

Abbott urged those who support their protest to call the VA and elected officials.

Protesters say they will continue using their bodies to block crews from chopping down trees until they are forcibly removed or the VA fully backs off plans to build the monument.

“We believe we have a moral obligation to protect this irreplaceable forest as all appropriate legislative and judicial channels have been exhausted,” Perdue, a veteran, said in a statement issued prior to Monday's protests.

The Indiana Forest Alliance and other environmental groups started pressuring the VA and elected officials in September. Many said they were upset that there were no public hearings held to discuss the plans before the decision was made to cut down the trees.

The VA bought the 14.75-acre wooded area from Crown Hill for $810,000 in September 2015. The VA plans to build a columbarium, an above-ground monument that will hold about 2,500 urns. The VA plans to later expand the columbarium to hold at least 25,000 urns for veterans and eligible relatives.

The VA plans to build a main entrance from 42nd Street as well as a wall, parking lot, roads, shelter and public restroom.

The VA did hold one public session in Downtown Indianapolis after it received approvals for the project.

About 250,000 veterans live in Central Indiana.

Indianapolis veterans and their families have to travel more than an hour by car to the nearest national cemetery in Marion, officials said during a Sept. 29 meeting in Indianapolis. Crown Hill was selected for its history and natural beauty, Glenn Powers, a deputy undersecretary of Veterans Affairs, told the hostile crowd of about 250 at the Indiana War Memorial Downtown.

"The issue is Marion is a distance for the veterans," Powers said, drawing hoots and jeers during that Sept. 29 meeting. "The core of the population is located a great distance."

U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly has called on the VA to work with the environmental groups. Mayor Joe Hogsett has gone further, urging the VA to stop the project.

Indianapolis City-County Council member Zach Adamson said he supports the protesters.

“Clearly, the VA must provide reasonable access to services for veterans and their families,” Adamson said in a news release. “Many veterans and non-veterans in our community feel that this obligation can and should be met without eliminating the only old growth forest in inner-city Indianapolis."

Protest groups said the VA's project will destroy the oldest forest in Central Indiana. Some trees are 300 to 500 years old, the groups have said.

“I am ashamed that these woods are being destroyed to honor my service,” Mary Bookwalter, a retired U.S. Marine Corps major, said in a statement. “These woods predate our state’s existence and are now about to go."

Hogsett called upon the VA to seek an alternate site in Crown Hill or elsewhere in the city in a March 8 statement.

"My dream would be for these woods to become part of the city's park system — one that is an enduring monument to our fallen heroes and one that preserves sacred ground that has been undisturbed for hundreds of years," the mayor said.

Carter Hays, 15, used rope and climbing gear to scale a tall tree Monday. He came down from his perch a few hours later once word spread that construction had been halted. Carter said he is prepared to climb back up.

The view, Carter said, was great.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @vicryc.

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