INDIANAPOLIS - About 25 protesters, hoping to save old growth trees at Crown Hill Cemetery, showed their support for veterans, but called on the Veterans Administration to change their plans to build at the site they purchased last year.
The protesters, young and old, held banners and signs at the main entrance of Crown Hill to save the old trees – some trees are estimated to be between 3 and 500 years old. 9-year old Clark Laker of Noblesville, front and center, was asked what his sign says.
“I respect vets, but save trees,” Laker says. “I hope they just move to another location and they just leave the trees alone.”
The protesters were hoping to bring attention to the likely loss of old growth trees while a Partners in Community Foresters Conference is taking place in Indianapolis.
Another protester, Deborah Machon of Indianapolis, is saddened by the prospect of losing the old growth trees. “I’m here today because of my grandson. I honestly think that we have stopped remembering what nature was like as a child," she says. "I see this trend of cutting everything that’s green - and not even realizing that it gives us shade and there is global warming and there’s so many reasons," Machon says.
The VA has indicated tree removal, in preparation for construction of the columbarium would start next month.
