Tri-State Outdoor News

Like every kid, I have a Christmas Wish List too. Unfortunately, these aren’t the type of things the Jolly ol’ Elf can’t bring. But you sure could.

I guess the first thing on my Christmas list would be funding for the Patoka National Wildlife Refuge in Pike and Gibson counties. The Patoka Refuge has been the neglected step-child of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife for far too long. While other refuges have found bundles of cheer to brighten their days (read regular funding for land acquisition), the Patoka Refuge has seen little.

The Patoka Refuge has reached a crucial time in its life where funding is desperately needed in order to preserve the integrity of this project in terms of its initial intent – to preserve one of Indiana’s most unique ecosystems
providing needed habitats for numerous species of plant and animal life, some of which are considered endangered or threatened, and to provide for public-access recreation be it wildlife viewing, hunting or fishing.

What is at stake here, if you read our November issue, is nearly 1,200 acres adjacent to the refuge’s Snakey Point Marsh. Within the next year, this tract of ground that contains upland grasslands and numerous lakes could easily fall into private ownership if funding isn’t made available now. Instead of refuge visitors overlooking a marsh and grasslands, they could soon be overlooking a marsh and homes on the other side. Instead of looking for short eared owls and Henlsow’s sparrows, they might be looking at gates and no trespassing signs.

My wish here is that readers will respond with letters to federal lawmakers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a show of support for our slow-to-grow refuge.

My second wish is for a suitable purchase agreement between the DNR and Peabody Energy for the acquisition of the Minnehaha Fish and Wildlife Area in Sullivan County. This isn’t something that can be put off any longer.
If you detect a sense of urgency, well, you’re correct. This is a most urgent matter that could affect the future of the refuge as a whole. There are people lining up at a shot to buy land within the proposed refuge boundary, some has already been sold off. The refuge simply cannot afford to loose this tract of ground – nor can we.

The DNR has worked so hard for so many years to find a way to purchase this 8,000 acres instead of a simple lease that has been thecase for well over a decade. Deals have been close in the past and reached it’s closest point just two years ago when all the funding was in place. At the final hour, the coal company decided it wanted to retain surface mining rights after the sale. The deal went sour, and perhaps that was best – for now. That doesn’t mean, however, efforts to acquire the area should go idle.

The only good news in this is the fact that a new lease agreement has been reached that will keep the area in DNR control, albeit at much higher lease price than before. But until the mining company negotiates the surface rights, Minnehaha faces the same uncertainty as it has for years.

The third item on my wish list is that every reader of this magazine return a small portion of their income tax return to the Indiana Non-Game and Endangered Species Program. It’s easy to do, just check it off on your state tax return. Contribute as much as you like or as little – just contribute a little something.

This program has been around for two decades now and has achieved some marvelous successes – all thanks to the Income Tax Checkoff. Bald eagles are now a common sight throughout the state and river otters are back home after being absent for decades. Bobcats have also returned and our state’s wildlife biologists now know so much more about other threatened and endangered species thanks to this fund that has made possible all sorts of research studies. Many species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians are now better off than they were 20 years ago, most of which we never think about. This is a fund where both hunters and nonhunters can come together because of the wide impact non-game work has on thecomplete ecosystem.

Along these same lines, another wish I have is to see more of those blue Heritage Trust license plates on our roads. Sure, there’s an additional $35 involved when you register your vehicle, but the payoff is great. Unlike the
Non-game and Endangered Species Program, the Heritage Trust Program targets our environmental heritage such as nature preserves, state parks and outdoor recreation, but it is also designed to preserve our cultural heritage be it an area of archeological significance or historic building worth saving.

Live greener. It might be the vogue thing now, but we all can live a little greener and reduce our carbon footprint. Be it as simple as turning off a light, using paper instead of plastic or recycling, there are all sorts of things
we can do on a daily basis to become urban conservationists.

Take for instance the new, insulated coffee cup I purchased the day I wrote this column. I drink coffee throughout the day and many of those cups come from across the street from my office. Now, instead of a Styrofoam
cup (many I save and reuse for my daily commute) that will eventually find its way into a landfill, I took the step at reducing my contribution of this long-lasting trash – not to mention that the refill is cheaper. Not only
did I reduce landfill material, but now I won’t be in the “demand loop” for these cups, and that’s less energy to make those cups.

And the same goes for bottled water.

Another wish is for each of us to introduce someone to the outdoors. Be it a kid or an adult and be it hunting, fishing or bird watching, every time we introduce someone to the outdoors the benefits are many. Not only do we pass along our heritage such as hunting and fishing, but the outdoor world benefits by more people becoming aware of the issues that affect our environment. People who participate in outdoor recreation are more apt to contribute to conservation causes and this particularly true amongst hunters who have paid for the bulk of conservation by way of groups such as Quail Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation and more.

And finally my last wish: That everyone get active – and I don’t mean get active by getting outside and doing things. The activity I speak of is right there in front of your computer and has been the central theme to this wish
list. Get active by writing letters, emails and making phone calls to our state and federal legislators and agencies. Let them know that our environment is important, not just from a healthy living standpoint reducing our carbon footprint, but in terms of demanding that things such as the Patoka Refuge and Minnehaha FWA be funded to put more land in the realm of public access.

Get active by introducing someone to the outdoors and get active by contributing a few dollars here and a few there to conservation groups that share the same goals as you and I. But importantly, get active so that our children and grandchildren will have the chance to see and experience the outdoors and all it has to offer.