VA Deal With Indianapolis Cemetery Will Spare Old Trees

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has reached an agreement with an Indianapolis cemetery that will spare nearly 15 acres of old-growth forest.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly on Friday announced the VA's deal with Crown Hill Cemetery to move a planned cemetery housing the cremated remains of military veterans and their relatives to an adjacent parcel.

Donnelly had contacted the VA last year to urge the agency to consider community concerns over the project that had drawn protests from environmentalists and other opponents who said it would have removed old-growth trees, some of them 300 years old. A federal judge ruled in favor of the project in January.