Fire Departments Benefit From Timber Sales

Nostalgia may be fine for some things, but Faron Livingston has few fond memories of the backpack-style water cans that firefighters used to have to lug around to battle brush and forest fires.

"The straps were nylon, like the kind you'd see on old lawn chairs," said Livingston, chief of the Bloomington Township Fire Department. "The clasps were adjustable, but they didn't adjust."

The result was a cumbersome, one-size-fits-all apparatus that weighed 58 pounds when fully loaded with water.

"If you were deep into the woods, it would cut right into your collarbone," Livingston said.

The old-fashioned water cans have been replaced by lighter and more functional models, thanks to a DNR Division of Forestry program that shares timber sale revenue with counties where state forests are located.

Each year, affected counties receive 15 percent of DNR net proceeds on timber harvested from state forests. State law requires counties to allocate half the funds to township fire departments. The Division of Forestry is distributing a record $366,870.94 to 16 counties based on revenue from 2008 timber sales. It's a 21 percent increase over the previous high mark in 2007. Since 1991, the program has given almost $2.5 million to the designated counties.

"We have a pretty significant wildfire program, and we try to funnel the money back into that," said Lonnie Kern, chief of the Washington Township Fire Department in Morgan County. "It supplements any program we're working on."

Morgan County topped the list of counties receiving 2008 allocations with almost $73,400.

The full county-by-county listing of allocations: Brown ($32,039.40); Clark ($11,830.11); Crawford ($483); Dubois ($9,842.40); Greene ($429.21); Harrison ($43,484.87); Jackson ($14,460.75); Martin ($28,407.73); Monroe ($59,503.32); Morgan ($73,391.94); Owen ($20,699.46); Perry ($4,471.40); Pike ($35,525.78); Scott ($5,342.04); Sullivan ($2,315.39); and Washington ($24,644.14).

Jennings, Miami and Putnam counties received no funding from this allocation but have in past years.