The following email was written by Neil Bloede, a board member of the Butler Tarkington Neighborhood Association:

“several people in the community recently learned that the Corps filed a permit to construct in a floodway from Friedman Park to the Rivi.  Part of the permit is to clear almost all of the trees and vegetation along this stretch of the White River.  This is a unique area because it is not technically represented by a neighborhood group like BTNA, MKNA or Rocky Ripple and I am concerned these homeowners do not understand what is about to happen and the impact the deforestation will have on the ecology of the river.  Both BTNA and Rocky Ripple have declined to take a formal position on this section of the levee construction because it is out of our technical boundaries.
 
Therefore, I wanted to pass this information along to you in the event that you might know some property owners that live over there that might want to collect signatures and submit a petition to DNR and force a public hearing on the tree clearing along this section of the river.  It takes 25 signatures from people in the affected area.  The “affected area” is one mile radius from the construction site.  I am outside of this area, but I’m sure that 25 people in the area north of the canal and south of Kessler (or even Warfleigh) would gladly sign this once they understand what is about to happen.
 
Unfortunately, we have some information that the issuance of the permit is imminent so this signature collection and submission of the petition would have to be done very quickly, maybe even this week.  We have heard that they must have the trees cut down by April 15th in order to prevent the Indiana brown bat from nesting in the area. 
 
Again, I am passing this along because people should have an opportunity to comment on public projects at a hearing and this project should be fully vetted before it permanently alters the landscape of our community.  BTNA is not officially opposing the project, but it is always best when the community gets to use all available opportunities for providing input.  

I have attached a link to the DNR info about the permit request and a draft copy of a petition that you could use.

http://www.in.gov/apps/dnr/water/query/dnr_water_permit_query?strFolderSubType=FW&lngFolderSeqNmbr=26947&request=FullRecord 
 
I have copied Bart Herriman, a Rocky Ripple resident, who has been very involved in the flood wall efforts and we would be willing to help coordinate submission of the petition to DNR once it is completed.”