Eight years of progress
John Goss, Director of the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources.
I certainly have enjoyed my time as the DNR director. When we think back on the past eight years, we should remember that Indiana has made significant steps to invest in and protect our natural resources, thanks to the commitment and leadership of two governors—Frank O’Bannon and Joe Kernan.
Here are just a few things we should remember.
Prophetstown State Park opened in August putting a state park within an hour’s drive of every Hoosier. Charlestown State Park just added five miles of Ohio River shoreline and doubled in size.
The new Indiana State Museum opened to showcase Indiana heritage and culture. It is located in White River State Park, which has helped revive downtown Indianapolis.
Hoosiers have purchased more than 900,000 Environmental License Plates, which have funded the permanent protection of more than 33,000 acres of land for wildlife and recreation. Fifty new dedicated nature preserves have been created—protecting some of Indiana’s most threatened and unique plants and animals.
Last fall, one of the first decisions made by Gov. Kernan when he succeeded the late-Gov. O’Bannon, was to purchase 1,500 acres of forest from IPALCO, saving it from the auction block, and adding it to Morgan Monroe State Forest.
This was a big win for the hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers who hunt and fish and enjoy watching wildlife, and things only got better. The state partnered with Indiana and Michigan Power Company to add another 8,000 acres of public access land at the Fairbanks Landing on the Wabash River.
DNR’s public access fishing and boating program is rolling along, having added 43 access sites on Indiana streams and lakes for all Hoosiers to enjoy.
As time passes, everything ages, including dams on DNR properties. We have invested $14 million to fix dams that threatened life and property.
The DNR has an important role in environmental protection. Indiana’s water is cleaner with more than $8 million spent to keep 1.3 million tons of sediment from eroding into our lakes and streams. That soil would fill 65,280 20-ton dump trucks that would form a line 308 miles long.
More than 200 abandoned oil and gas wells have been plugged and cleaned up in just the last five years; and 263 abandoned coal mines have been cleaned up and reclaimed in southwest Indiana with more than $32 million invested.
Among Indiana’s most important legacies are the state parks, forests, and natural areas that have been preserved for future generations. We kept Indiana’s parks and programs open during the recent national recession while some other states were closing theirs.
How? We asked our customers to pay higher recreation and sporting user fees in the past few years to bring in several million dollars in new revenue. The increases were needed to offset the millions of dollars in cuts in state general fund appropriations.
The state legislature begins writing a new budget in January. The DNR needs your support in this tough time in state government. Please talk to your state legislators about your favorite DNR programs and ask for their help to adequately fund the next DNR budget.
