Protesters rally to save Dysart Woods

by Erica Bush
Staff Writer
erica.m.bush@ohiou.edu

The Dysart Defenders hoped games of Twister and protest postcards would make an effective plea to Ohio University President Robert Glidden to save Dysart Woods.       

At the rally yesterday at the West Portico of the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, a meager turnout gathered and maneuvered themselves into unusual positions as they played a game of Twister with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, OU and the Ohio Valley Coal Company as icons on the board.

The Dysart Defenders’ version of the game aimed to demonstrate that people can fall down during Twister, just like trees can fall down if the Ohio Valley Coal Company is allowed to mine under the woods, said coordinator Chad Kister.

Protestors gathered to present Glidden with more than 300 postcards they collected from Athens residents, students and OU faculty members, urging him to do as much as he could to protect the forest.

“OU says they have little power, but that is not the case,” Kister said.

Glidden addressed the crowd stating he appreciated the protestors’ passion for Dysart Woods but reminded them that OU does not own the forest’s mining rights.

The university has engaged the services of environmental attorney Robert Shostak, who will tell OU officials whether or when to appeal the permit. OU will do everything they can to protect the woods, Glidden said.

But he said he does not know where permit approval stands, because no news concerning Ohio Valley Coal Company’s permit has been released in at least two months, he said.

“In these particular times, this does not occupy my every thought every day,” Glidden said.

Months or even years could pass before a decision is reached, and at a time when nothing is new, a protest is unpractical, Glidden said. A time will come when pressure will be more appropriate, but that time is not now.

But gatherers thought that the timing was appropriate.

This is a time to be irritated and angry, and Glidden is treating protestors like pests, said Cusi Gibbons, a member of Protecting Ohio’s Public Land Air and Rivers group.

Glidden also used the opportunity to question the effectiveness of the postcards presented to him.

He said it will take more than the 300 postcards he received to appeal the permit, because the Ohio Division of Mineral Resources is the ultimate decision maker.

But Kister said he thinks the postcards can have beneficial results. After petitions were presented to Glidden in a fall protest, the university hired Shostak.

Ohio old-growth forests, which are plots of land that have not been harmed by human development, make up only 0.004 percent of all forests in the state, Kister said. That makes Dysart Woods a valuable asset.