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Monday, January 08, 2007
Environment - "Indiana's outdoors vanishing quickly"
Phil Potter of Tri-State Outdoors in the Evansville Courier & Press writes about how Indiana compares unfavorably with Illinois in "trying to provide key habitat and roaming room for critters and humans for years to come.":
llinois even works with private landowners on how to protect and manage key natural areas. The management also applies to public lands, where intensive work is done to keep ecosystems healthy.Now let's take a peek at Indiana. According to surveys, Indiana ranks 46th in the nation for the amount of state and federal land set aside for recreation. Plus, Hoosiers are in the unenviable position of being 48th on environmental issues.
As far back as 1995, surveys showed Indiana had set aside less than 4 percent of the state's lands for conservation and recreation.
This is a slap in the face to the nearly 50 percent of Hoosiers who claim they hunt, fish or watch wildlife. If they'd speak up, the roar of disapproval would really get lawmakers' attention.
After Indiana became a major farming state, little concern was given to the accelerated demise of woods and wetlands. It has been estimated that the net loss of Hoosier forests has been 78-89 percent while wetlands have shrunk 80-87 percent.
The prairie that once started in Indiana and rolled across to Illinois is virtually extinct. Except for a sparse handful of places such as Connor Prairie, Indiana has lost at least 98 percent of these once verdant plains.
Not everyone is content to see it vanish forever. About 75 percent of all Hoosiers say they'd favor a yearly $10-$25 tax increase if that money was spent on land buying.
On a daily basis, Indiana's landscape morphs into a concrete jungle, mainly because no legislation exists to prevent urban sprawl from enveloping farm and recreational lands.
This really applies to Indianapolis. In 1968, the city was inside Marion County. Today, Marion County is Indianapolis, which is spreading into two more counties.
But not all is lost as more and more states choose to save what's left of the past to protect the future.
Indiana conservation groups, wildlife watchers, farmers, hunting clubs and interested anglers need to rally in defense of wild places and the environment.
Send petitions or visit the legislature in groups. Just do something before the land you used to live off of and enjoy becomes another highway, subdivision or shopping mall.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 8, 2007 08:31 AM
Posted to Environment