More public land in Indiana...

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.

For more information, see www.healthyrivers.IN.gov

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The Department of Natural Resources will open to public use an additional 1,166 acres along the Wabash River with the start of spring turkey hunting season on Wednesday.

The land was acquired as part of the DNR’s Healthy Rivers INitiative. HRI was launched in 2010 to secure permanent conservation protection of nearly 70,000 acres along Sugar Creek, the Wabash River and the Muscatatuck River.

The new lands are:

— 245 acres in Sullivan and Vigo counties that will be managed as part of Fairbanks Landing Fish & Wildlife Area.
— 815 acres in Vermillion and Vigo counties that will be managed as part of the Wabash River Conservation Area.
— 106 acres in Vigo County that will be managed as part of Wabashiki Fish & Wildlife Area.

These parcels will be managed in accordance with the rules for their associated fish-and-wildlife properties. For more information on Fish & Wildlife Areas and Conservation Areas visit wildlife.IN.gov/3077.htm.

The three openings increase the acreage that HRI has opened to public use since the conservation project began to 28,425 acres.

An additional 4,128 acres are enrolled in conservation easements, bringing the total of permanently protected land to 32,553 acres.

These lands have been protected through a combination of acquisitions from willing sellers, conservation easements and Wetlands Reserve Program enrollments.

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