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The Ohio Division of Mineral Resources (ODMR) has approved Ohio Valley Coal Company permit D-0360-12 to undermine all three old growth forest areas of Dysart Woods.
While The ODMR claims that there will be no subsidence from this mining, that is an absolute lie based on proven examples of room and pillar subsidence of the #8 Pittsburgh Coal seam throughout Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Dysart Defenders will appeal the permit, and demands that Ohio University, which owns Dysart Woods, do the same.
The Ohio University Ecology Committee, which is made up of a majority of administrators and is the environmental think-tank of OU policy, passed a resolution requesting that OU appeal the permit.
OU President Robert Glidden needs to send a strong message that OU will follow its commitment to the Nature Conservancy when it purchased Dysart Woods in 1966 to protect the most significant of the last .004 percent of the ancient forest left in Ohio.
The decision, predictably, occurred on a Friday afternoon while school was out at OU and when the majority of vacationing occurs. All permit decisions for coal mining near Dysart Woods have occurred on just such occasions.
"The ODMR is trying to slip this through and say that they are protecting Dysart Woods when what they are approving would undermine the most significant of the .004 percent of the remaining old-growth forest left in Ohio," said Dysart Defenders Coordinator Chad Kister. "Dysart Defenders demands that Ohio University appeal this permit. The OU Ecology Committee has already recommended that this permit be appealed. It is imperative that OU follow this guiding wisdom before it is too late."
All interested parties have only 30 days in which to appeal the permit. Furthermore, a stay of action must be won extremely soon in court or OVCC can proceed with mining while the permit is under appeal, because of the pro-industry bias of Ohio law.
"Now is the time for heavy oversight and attention of this critical issue," Kister said. "It has been a long, long struggle. But these are, unquestionably the final days, and this is the final permit that would destroy this great forest, unless it is stopped."
While The ODMR claims that there will be no subsidence from this mining, that is an absolute lie based on proven examples of room and pillar subsidence of the #8 Pittsburgh Coal seam throughout Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Dysart Defenders will appeal the permit, and demands that Ohio University, which owns Dysart Woods, do the same.
The Ohio University Ecology Committee, which is made up of a majority of administrators and is the environmental think-tank of OU policy, passed a resolution requesting that OU appeal the permit.
OU President Robert Glidden needs to send a strong message that OU will follow its commitment to the Nature Conservancy when it purchased Dysart Woods in 1966 to protect the most significant of the last .004 percent of the ancient forest left in Ohio.
The decision, predictably, occurred on a Friday afternoon while school was out at OU and when the majority of vacationing occurs. All permit decisions for coal mining near Dysart Woods have occurred on just such occasions.
"The ODMR is trying to slip this through and say that they are protecting Dysart Woods when what they are approving would undermine the most significant of the .004 percent of the remaining old-growth forest left in Ohio," said Dysart Defenders Coordinator Chad Kister. "Dysart Defenders demands that Ohio University appeal this permit. The OU Ecology Committee has already recommended that this permit be appealed. It is imperative that OU follow this guiding wisdom before it is too late."
All interested parties have only 30 days in which to appeal the permit. Furthermore, a stay of action must be won extremely soon in court or OVCC can proceed with mining while the permit is under appeal, because of the pro-industry bias of Ohio law.
"Now is the time for heavy oversight and attention of this critical issue," Kister said. "It has been a long, long struggle. But these are, unquestionably the final days, and this is the final permit that would destroy this great forest, unless it is stopped."