Group illegally marks trees to try to delay Indiana logging

NASHVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Activists opposed to the planned logging of about 1,700 trees in a southern Indiana forest have marked hundreds of additional trees in a bid to delay the cutting.

The trees at Yellowwood State Forest were spray-painted with blue paint like that marking adjacent trees slated for logging.

The action came days after the Indiana Department of Natural Resources sold the rights to log about 1,700 trees in the forest near Nashville.

The Indianapolis Star reports a group calling itself "Night Owls, Paint and Exteriors" wrote in an anonymous online post that it marked the trees to force the DNR "to redo the work of marking these tracts, thus delaying when logging could start."

DNR spokesman Marty Benson says the state agency remains committed to proceeding with the winning bidders' logging.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com