by John R. Goss, DNR Director
The Indiana Heritage Trust, which protects natural areas for recreation and wildlife, is at a crossroads today that reminds me of a similar challenge Hoosiers faced more than 40 years ago.
A 2,182-acre state park was the only area of the Indiana Dunes that was protected in its natural state. Industrial and commercial development threatened to consume all that was left of the sand dunes, beaches, bogs, wetlands and forest along Indiana's Lake Michigan border.
Thanks to some tireless Hoosier conservationists and a senator from Illinois, an additional 13,000 acres were protected by the federal government in 1966 and turned into the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Opportunities to save unique and important parts of our natural heritage like the Indiana Dunes don't come around often. If we don't protect these areas when we have the opportunity, we may not get a second chance.
What does that mean for the Heritage Trust? The Indiana General Assembly is one of the Trust's financial partners, providing the program with $16 million in 10 years. Due to the national recession, however, the state legislature doesn't have funds available to support the program right now.
That puts a big burden on the other two financial partners.
Hoosiers who buy Environmental License Plates have purchased 700,000 plates and raised more than $17 million in 10 years. The other major partners have been conservation organizations and land trusts. They have provided more than $28 million in land and various contributions.
We have a choice to make. We can do nothing and watch more natural areas being turned into parking lots and mini-malls. Or we can try to replace funding lost to the recession.
The conservation groups and land trusts and others are pitching in to do all they can. The Nature Conservancy, for example, has even advocated for legislation to provide a secure funding source for Heritage Trust projects. In time, it may be possible to develop consensus and broad-based support for this proposal.
But what about today? Here's what you can do.
If you own an Environmental License Plate, please renew your plate this year. If you don't own an Environmental Plate, buy one.
And tell your friends, neighbors and relatives just how important it is for them to purchase an Environmental Plate this year.
If each of you recruits one more person to the cause, that will replace most of the funding lost due to the recession. And if each of you enlists two recruits...
Just point them to www.enviroplate.IN.gov to learn more about the program.
And remember the story of the Indiana Dunes. Don't loose this opportunity to help protect irreplaceable Hoosier resources.
