Each year at tax time Indiana offers a unique opportunity to invest in preserving and managing wildlife habitat, reintroducing species and protecting others. You can do this by donating money on line 32 of the state income tax form.
The tax check-off was used to help fund the reintroduction last year of ospreys, magnificent fish eating raptors that are far too few in number right now to establish a significant nesting population.
Previously we brought back bald eagles, peregrine falcons and river otters. All species have done very well following their return to Indiana.
This was all possible because you and people like you invested in the nongame and endangered wildlife fund. Last year we received more than $404,000 from the tax check-off and another $3,700 in direct contributions.
Later this year, the DNR will dedicate Pisgah Marsh, a wetland in Kosciusko County featuring a boardwalk and interpretive signage. And we'll continue our two-year-old project of tracking and learning about Indiana's only wild feline -- the bobcat.
All this is possible because Hoosiers invest in the nongame and endangered wildlife fund. Please keep Indiana's wildlife in your thoughts when you fill out your taxes this year.
We had another great success as 2003 rolled to a close by negotiating and purchasing 1,500 forested acres in Morgan County. At Gov. Joe Kernan's request, the Indianapolis Power and Light Company negotiated with the DNR and sold the forestland to the state right before it was to have been offered at an auction.
The land, which looked like it would be lost to urban sprawl, will be managed as part of Morgan-Monroe State Forest.
Bryan Nicol, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation, provided federal highway dollars to purchase the land. The state will purchase three acres for every acre of forestland to be lost in construction of I-69. Hikers, bird watchers, hunters and others will enjoy this precious piece of forest for generations to come.
A local group purchased the balance of the property. The DNR is building another partnership to provide funds from the federal forest legacy program and Indiana Heritage Trust to keep another 1,500 acres forested forever.
Indiana has another extraordinary conservation opportunity in 2004. Recently the owner of the Goose Pond in Greene County said he will put his property on the auction block. This 7,200-acres is being restored as marshland using the federal wetland reserve program.
The property already is drawing sandhill cranes, and we have received reports that a couple of whooping cranes stopped by this year.
The DNR is working with partners to invest in Goose Pond so that this wonderful restoration project will forever be open to the public.
