Judge rejects bid to halt Indianapolis cemetery project

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - An environmental group plans to appeal a judge's ruling that rejected its bid to block a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery project that would fell a tract of old-growth forest in Indianapolis.

U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson denied the Indiana Forest Alliance's bid for a preliminary injunction Friday, writing in part that its suit overlooked the "limited scope of the court's administrative review."

Forest Alliance executive director Jeff Stant says the group plans to appeal. He says the judge's decision "takes the VA's side on every single point."

The VA purchased nearly 15 wooded acres in Crown Hill Cemetery in 2015 for a planned cemetery housing the cremated remains of veterans and their relatives.

Opponents say the project will remove old-growth trees, some of them 300 years old.