Angola Middle School students conduct studies at Cedar Lake, an Indiana Heritage Trust purchase in Steuben County.

Ten years seem to have passed with the blink of an eye. Just a decade ago, state leaders were debating how Indiana could set aside more land for recreation and wildlife before it was consumed by new neighborhoods and commercial development.

Then-Gov. Evan Bayh and Lt. Gov. Frank O'Bannon proposed the Indiana Heritage Trust to collect donations from Hoosier motorists who would purchase special Environmental License Plates.

Twenty-five bucks a plate would add up to a pretty good trust fund, lawmakers figured, and Indiana's first specialty license plate became law in 1992.

No one at that time could have imagined just how successful the program would be.

Hoosier motorists have purchased more than 700,000 environmental plates since then and the Heritage Trust has protected more than 30,000 acres where wildlife thrives and families connect with nature.

Lawmakers hoped that local project sponsors and land trusts would contribute one dollar for every three dollars that the Heritage Trust would provide to purchase and protect a natural area.

It has worked better than planned. On average, program partners have pitched in one dollar for every single dollar contributed by the Heritage Trust.

There were three land trusts that raised money to protect natural areas when the Heritage Trust began. Today there are 30. The environmental plate was the first specialty license plate to raise money for a cause. Today there are more than 50 special plates.

Financial support from the Indiana General Assembly provided needed funding during the program's early years, but the prolonged recession means that the Heritage Trust will have to rely on more support from motorists and program partners to save wildlife habitat in the near future.

Expect to see more information this year to encourage more people to switch to the blue, eagle and sun Environmental License Plate. Please visit www.enviroplate.IN.gov for details.

Hard economic realities affected all state agency budgets and services during the past couple of years. More than $75 million were cut from the DNR's operating and capital improvement budgets because the national recession reduced state tax revenue.

By most standards, however, the DNR accomplished a great deal in 2002 by relying on customers to pay a little more, by developing partnerships and by strategic cuts in labor and other expenses.

We will be able to maintain our present level of service and reclaim a little lost ground if the new legislative session produces a budget that doesn't cut DNR any deeper.