Post by antiwheeze on Jun 11, 2010 22:37:07 GMT -5
From :
courier-journal.com
SCOTTSBURG, Ind. -- A wide swath of Muscatatuck River bottoms stretching across three Southern Indiana counties and 45,600 acres will be preserved for wildlife and opened for hunting, fishing and hiking under an ambitious project Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Friday.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources will immediately begin acquiring the land from willing sellers with the goal of protecting habitat for amphibians, reptiles and waterfowl as well as enhancing flood control in the region and bolstering the state's hardwood forests.
The project will "create one of the state's largest complexes of both upland and lowland forest, attracting abundant waterfowl and migratory songbirds," said Mary McConnell, state director of The Nature Conservancy, who attended the announcement at the Hardy Lake State Recreation Area in Scott County.
"This is an incredibly, incredibly significant property," she said.
Much of the land should be acquired in the next two years using $21.5 million from hunting and fishing license fees and $10 million from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, DNR officials said. But no landowner will be required to sell.
Daniels said the project was one of "lasting and large importance" in Indiana and continues his administration's "record" pace of land conservation.
In fact, the Daniels' visit to Hardy Lake came just one day after the governor announced in Terre Haute that the state would begin acquiring 43,000 acres of land located along 94 miles of the Wabash River and Sugar Creek in west central Indiana.
That project is expected to be the largest conservation project in Indiana history. The Muscatatuck Bottoms project would be the second largest.
It will essentially link two divergent sections of the Jackson-Washington State Forest. McConnell said it will also serve as the hub of a wheel whose spokes include Spring Mill State Park, the Hardy Lake State Recreation Area and other state and federal properties.
Friday's announcement took place at Hardy Lake, where conservation officers, wildlife advocates and lawmakers gathered to applaud the project.
"This is one of those opportunities of a decade," said John Goss, executive director of the In all, the project will include land in Scott, Washington and Jackson counties that is largely undeveloped forest and home to several species that state officials said are endangered or threatened, including birds such as the yellow-crowned night heron, least bittern, red-shouldered hawk and Cerulean warbler.
Two state-endangered reptiles -- the Kirtland's snake and copperbelly watersnake -- also are found along the Muscatatuck forests as well as the featherfoil, a state-endangered plant. The forest is characterized by several species of oak, hickory and sweet gum.
Although much of the land has been undisturbed, the state will undertake some restoration efforts to turn farmland back into forests, said Mark Reiter, director of the DNR's division of fish and wildlife. That includes replanting the hardwood trees that are native to the region.
Scottsburg Mayor Bill Graham said Friday he is pleased the state won't use eminent domain to take any land and he believes most property owners will sell willingly.
He thinks the resulting recreation area will be a boon to the region's economic development efforts and Graham told the governor he'd start working on the tourism plan immediately. He pointed on a map where Scottsburg already has a trail system close to the proposed recreation area and said the city will consider expanding it into the space.
Graham acknowledged that the project will take some land off the property tax rolls but he said the "benefits far outweigh any costs."
A few of the tracts in the proposed recreation area already are owned by the state and some by The Nature Conservancy, which recently spent about $1.5 million buying more than 1,000 acres in the area.
Reiter said the group will likely sell that property to the state at a discount and could help with the purchase of additional parcels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service and Ducks Unlimited are also expected to help with the project.
"I have goose bumps today just thinking about what we're doing," said state Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Crothersville, whose district includes much of the Muscatatuck Bottoms property. "As development continues over the next 50 or 75 or 100 years, people are going to look back at this move -- at all this preserved land -- and think that it was an awesome idea."
Reporter Lesley Stedman Weidenbener can be reached at (317) 444-2780.
courier-journal.com
SCOTTSBURG, Ind. -- A wide swath of Muscatatuck River bottoms stretching across three Southern Indiana counties and 45,600 acres will be preserved for wildlife and opened for hunting, fishing and hiking under an ambitious project Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Friday.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources will immediately begin acquiring the land from willing sellers with the goal of protecting habitat for amphibians, reptiles and waterfowl as well as enhancing flood control in the region and bolstering the state's hardwood forests.
The project will "create one of the state's largest complexes of both upland and lowland forest, attracting abundant waterfowl and migratory songbirds," said Mary McConnell, state director of The Nature Conservancy, who attended the announcement at the Hardy Lake State Recreation Area in Scott County.
"This is an incredibly, incredibly significant property," she said.
Much of the land should be acquired in the next two years using $21.5 million from hunting and fishing license fees and $10 million from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, DNR officials said. But no landowner will be required to sell.
Daniels said the project was one of "lasting and large importance" in Indiana and continues his administration's "record" pace of land conservation.
In fact, the Daniels' visit to Hardy Lake came just one day after the governor announced in Terre Haute that the state would begin acquiring 43,000 acres of land located along 94 miles of the Wabash River and Sugar Creek in west central Indiana.
That project is expected to be the largest conservation project in Indiana history. The Muscatatuck Bottoms project would be the second largest.
It will essentially link two divergent sections of the Jackson-Washington State Forest. McConnell said it will also serve as the hub of a wheel whose spokes include Spring Mill State Park, the Hardy Lake State Recreation Area and other state and federal properties.
Friday's announcement took place at Hardy Lake, where conservation officers, wildlife advocates and lawmakers gathered to applaud the project.
"This is one of those opportunities of a decade," said John Goss, executive director of the In all, the project will include land in Scott, Washington and Jackson counties that is largely undeveloped forest and home to several species that state officials said are endangered or threatened, including birds such as the yellow-crowned night heron, least bittern, red-shouldered hawk and Cerulean warbler.
Two state-endangered reptiles -- the Kirtland's snake and copperbelly watersnake -- also are found along the Muscatatuck forests as well as the featherfoil, a state-endangered plant. The forest is characterized by several species of oak, hickory and sweet gum.
Although much of the land has been undisturbed, the state will undertake some restoration efforts to turn farmland back into forests, said Mark Reiter, director of the DNR's division of fish and wildlife. That includes replanting the hardwood trees that are native to the region.
Scottsburg Mayor Bill Graham said Friday he is pleased the state won't use eminent domain to take any land and he believes most property owners will sell willingly.
He thinks the resulting recreation area will be a boon to the region's economic development efforts and Graham told the governor he'd start working on the tourism plan immediately. He pointed on a map where Scottsburg already has a trail system close to the proposed recreation area and said the city will consider expanding it into the space.
Graham acknowledged that the project will take some land off the property tax rolls but he said the "benefits far outweigh any costs."
A few of the tracts in the proposed recreation area already are owned by the state and some by The Nature Conservancy, which recently spent about $1.5 million buying more than 1,000 acres in the area.
Reiter said the group will likely sell that property to the state at a discount and could help with the purchase of additional parcels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service and Ducks Unlimited are also expected to help with the project.
"I have goose bumps today just thinking about what we're doing," said state Rep. Terry Goodin, D-Crothersville, whose district includes much of the Muscatatuck Bottoms property. "As development continues over the next 50 or 75 or 100 years, people are going to look back at this move -- at all this preserved land -- and think that it was an awesome idea."
Reporter Lesley Stedman Weidenbener can be reached at (317) 444-2780.
