Ohio has lost over 99.9 percent of its original ancient forest,
and
Dysart Woods, located in Belmont County, comprises much
of the remaining virgin forest. Dysart is owned by Ohio
University. Ohio Valley Coal
Co. has applied to mine under the watershed buffer zone of Dysart.
Leading Ohio University scientists have publicly stated that Permit
#D-0360-7(Permit 7) could permanently damage the woods.
Ohio Valley Coal Co. Permit 7 threatens more
than 500 acres of Dysart Woods' watershed buffer zone. The ODMR,
after
initially rejecting Ohio Valley Coal's mining proposal, sent it back
to OVCC
a second time on March 17, 1998 for over 90 revisions.
OVCC is expected to resubmit the proposal soon and permission to begin
mining may come as early as May.
Dysart Woods was bought from the Nature Conservancy by Ohio
University in the 1960's. OU agreed by law to protect the ancient
forest in perpetuity. OU knew at the time that coal mining would threaten
the forest. When the first threat came in 1970, OU scientists
drafted a
4,170 acre watershed buffer zone to protect the forest. This
buffer zone has
remained unchanged in OU's protection of the forest from four coal
mining
attempts in the last 27 years.
Now, the OU administration is preparing a Lands Unsuitable for
Mining Petition(LUMP) that they claim will protect Dysart from mining
interests. The petition would reduce the watershed buffer zone
to one
twelvth of its original size, from 4,170 to approximately 350 acres.
The
new 350 acre buffer zone would not even include all of Dysart's 455
acres.
This decision by the OU administration would blatantly disregarded
the
opinions of their own scientists, students, and thousands of concerned
citizens.
Please call Chad at 740-594-7287 or Chris or Dan at 740-662-4029, email
ougreens@frognet.net, or
mail: P.O. Box
31, Athens, OH 45701.
Walkers, walk organizers, and donations of food and money are needed.
Please make checks payable to "Dysart Defenders" and send to the above
address.