Vic Ryckaert

vic.ryckaert@indystar.com



An environmental group is mounting a last-ditch effort to preserve a 15-acre forest on the north side of Crown Hill Cemetery.

The Indiana Forest Alliance is urging the public to help it stop the Department of Veterans Affairs' plans to build a monument that would hold cremated ashes of Hoosier veterans on a site located near 42nd Street and Clarendon Road.

"We are about to lose the only virgin forest in Indianapolis," Anne Laker, IFA's communications director, wrote in an article posted Thursday on the group's website.

In September 2015, the VA bought the 14.75-acre wooded area from Crown Hill for $810,000.

The VA is building 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.

“Our cemeteries are national treasures and sacred shrines that honor the brave men and women who sacrificed for our country,” Robert A. McDonald, the VA secretary, said in a news release announcing the purchase.

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

The Indiana Forest Alliance says the construction will destroy trees that have been growing since before the Mayflower landed in North America.

"Trees in this forest has been undisturbed for as many as 300 years," Laker wrote. "The stand contains at least one bur oak tree thought to be 500 years old."

The group wants the VA to find a new location and is urging residents to call and write their representatives in the U.S. Congress and Senate.

"We stand against the destruction of the irreplaceable," Laker wrote.

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