December 22, 2014

News Release

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Department of Natural Resources announces the addition of more than 650 acres in two project areas of the Healthy Rivers INitiative (HRI).

HRI completed the purchase of approximately 380 acres in Vigo County in the Wabash River Conservation Area. The land consisted of three parcels under separate ownership.

Another 287 acres were purchased along the Muscatatuck River in the Austin Bottoms Conservation Area - a total of 170 acres from three landowners in Scott County and 117 acres from one landowner in Jackson County.

"These newest additions build on HRI's steady progress toward protecting 70,000 acres of riverside corridors in these two areas," said Mark Reiter, director of the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. "We are grateful to the conservation-minded landowners who share in our goal to balance forests, farmed lands and natural resources in ways that benefit wildlife, improve water quality and flood protection, and provide open land for public recreational activities."

HRI is a partnership of resource agencies and organizations working to secure permanent protection for 70,000 acres along Sugar Creek, the Wabash River, and the Muscatatuck River.

The DNR, Indiana State Department of Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy of Indiana, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service are HRI project partners.

Since its launch in 2010, HRI has purchased 12,454 acres and permanently protected almost 31,800 acres through newly acquired land, previous DNR ownership, or federal Wetland Reserve conservation programs.

That's great news....