Environmentalists Cry, ‘Miners, Spare That 400-Year-Old Forest!’

The trees are older than the state, older than the country.

The 50-acre tangle of moss-covered trees, some gnarled and bent with age, some towering 10 stories high, has withstood wind, rain, hail, snow and lightning for generations.

Can it survive coal mining?

The mining company says yes. Environmentalists say no.

Now the state must decide just how close to the trees Ohio Valley Coal Co. can come in exercising its mining rights on a coal seam beneath land owned by Ohio University.

Dysart Woods is an old-growth timber tract, meaning the trees--some almost 400 years old--have never been cleared, logged or otherwise harmed by humans. Such growth is rarely found east of the Mississippi River.

It’s an ecological time capsule that is too valuable to risk, said Brian McCarthy, an Ohio University plant ecology professor.

“You don’t see this anywhere else in Ohio,” McCarthy said, standing in a grove of white oak and beech trees, some 3 and 4 feet in diameter. “These forests represent the native gene pool of native herbs and tree species.”

The forest of cherry, tulip poplar, white and red oak, ash, sugar maple and beech trees was declared a natural landmark by the U.S. Department of Interior in 1967. That protects the grove, but not the surrounding area.

Environmentalists say Ohio Valley, which holds mining rights beneath the 455-acre tract in southern Ohio that is home to Dysart Woods, wants to work too close to the trees for comfort.

“Mining probably won’t kill the woods. But it might,” McCarthy said. “They don’t have the data to refute it. We don’t have the data to support it. Basically, we’d be playing Russian roulette.”

Ohio Valley says there is no cause for alarm--it has no intention of harming the woods. Its chief executive says he has no immediate plans to mine the coal seam that lies beneath the trees. Even if that plan changes, company research shows the trees wouldn’t be harmed, he said.

“There are many people who want to protect Dysart Woods. I happen to be one of them,” said Robert E. Murray, president and chief executive officer of Ohio Valley Coal.

Ohio Valley Coal has mined throughout Belmont County for eight years. The company was cleared in October to extend its Powahatan No. 6 mine to within 1 3/4 miles of the area the university wants to protect.

A preliminary review of a pending application to move to within about 2,100 feet of the woods found that the project would not cause “significant adverse impacts on the Dysart Woods system,” according to a state environmental review team’s report.

No decision on the application has been made.

Ohio University and environmental groups are concerned that Ohio Valley will someday get a permit to allow mining beneath the old-growth area. Murray won’t rule out that possibility but said it could be years before a decision is made.

“I have volunteered not to mine beneath Dysart Woods if the ongoing independent research by scientists--not ‘would-be’ experts--shows that there may be substantial damage to the woods,” he said.

Ohio Valley extracts the coal through longwall mining. A machine moves along the coal seam, grinding about 3 feet deep per pass. The process continues until an area about 5 feet high, 750 feet wide and 2 miles long has been mined.

Steel shields that form a roof protecting the equipment and miners move deeper into the mine panel as more coal is extracted. As the shields move forward, the ground above the panel eventually collapses, a process called subsidence. McCarthy worries subsidence could cause cracks, which would divert surface water from its course.

“Altering the hydrology system could be devastating to the trees,” McCarthy said. “Some of these trees might already be under stress. Altering the water table might be enough to throw them over the edge.”

Jeff Holt, a forester hired by Ohio Valley to research the effect of subsidence on surface vegetation, said trees throughout Belmont County have shown no significant damage from longwall mining.

He believes opponents are being overly cautious.

“If there’s not a lot of research to back it up, academic types will typically want to not do something,” he said.

Gary North, Ohio University’s vice president for administration, said the school is not looking for a conflict with the coal industry. After all, the school uses energy from coal and is researching ways to improve the quality of the mineral, he said.

It just wants Ohio Valley to protect the trees.

“If subsidence causes damage to buildings, the buildings are paid for or replaced. If a road caves in, it’s replaced,” North said. “But you simply cannot replace an old-growth forest.”