Environmentalists sue VA, hope to save old-growth forest

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Environmentalists in Indiana have filed legal action against the federal government to preserve about 15-acres of old-growth forest that would be razed for a national cemetery.

The groups filed the injunction and temporary restraining order requests Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. If the measure are granted it would stop the VA from clearing burr oaks, northern red oaks, tulip poplars and a 500-year-old oak tree from the land near Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Crown Hill Cemetery sold the land to the VA for $800,000 last fall. The construction project was scheduled to begin in April. The VA's National Cemetery Administration didn't immediately respond to calls from the Indianapolis Star on Wednesday.