Monroe County is getting about $100,000 from the state this year for the trees that logged in its state forests, which is twice as much as last year.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources distributes 15 percent what's made from logging trees in the state forests to counties across the state.
That money then goes to rural and volunteer fire departments, who are encouraged to use the funds to prepare for wildfires.
The total amount of timber sale revenue distributed this year was a little over $333,000, about $20,000 more than 2012.
Monroe County was left with a third of the total revenue.
DNR State Forester John Seifert says the reason for Monroe County's large share this year is because of a delay in timber sales at the end of the 2012 fiscal year. When those were sold in addition to the 2013 timber, the number was higher than average.
In fact, it was the highest amount allocated to any Indiana county in the past 12 years. That timber revenue mostly comes from Morgan-Monroe State Forest, which is partly in Morgan County as well as Monroe.
Myke Luurtsema, a coordinator for Hoosier Forest Watch, says those numbers are indicative of a major change in state forest logging.
"I'm not surprised that the numbers are as high as they are," he says. "I'm surprised by the distribution of the logging. I'm surprised that it's so concentrated in Monroe County as opposed to other counties.What that says is that the Monroe County side of Morgan-Monroe state forest is getting hit a lot harder than it has been ever in history if you look at the numbers."
Seifert is adamant that logging practices today are more sustainable than ever before.
"No matter what kind of hat people try to put us, we've been doing this for over a hundred years and the forest is still there," Seifert says. "We have a broad diversity of species and habitats and that's where we like to be at."
Earlier this year, the DNR came under fire for logging in state forest back country.
