www.IN.gov/dnr

When I joined the DNR more than nine years ago, I was ushered to a little office that contained a 1986 vintage computer. The computer was pretty slow, with a hard drive barely big enough to store one of the digital photos you see in Outdoor Indiana today.

The DNR, like almost every business or government at the time, was working hard to come to grips with rapidly improving computer technology that literally would change the way we do business.

We had a fledgling Internet home page that included some pretty good information about our programs and services. Many employees were connected by e-mail, and we even communicated to some customers that way.

What a change we have seen in just a few years.

Today you can reserve a specific campsite at a state park, reservoir or recreation area online. In just a year and-a-half, we have taken about 200,000 reservations on the Internet.

Available 24/7, the opportunity to pick a specific campsite at your convenience is just one of the reasons DNR’s home page has received 4.4 million visitors in the past year.

It’s just as easy to reserve a room at a state park inn. No phone calls, no waiting.

We even have a store online. Mother Nature’s Mercantile offers some of the neat stuff featured in our state park inn gift shops. You can find clothing, nature books, cookbooks and even children’s toys.

If you wanted to purchase a hunting or fishing license a few years ago, you had to stop by a bait and tackle store, a larger retail store or one of DNR’s properties that sell the licenses. You have more choices now. From your home computer, you can simply log on and buy a license directly from the DNR.

The Web site is about more than travel and family fun. Go there to learn about the Environmental License Plate or some of our latest projects, such as the major effort to acquire Goose Pond—about 7,000 acres in Greene County that are being restored as wetlands.

One of DNR’s major responsibilities is resource regulation. You can find information about that on the Web, too.

You can review applications for floodway construction permits, well records, or learn how to obtain flood insurance just by going online.

Sometimes people who have questions or issues they want to discuss don’t have time to call during our normal work schedules, so they e-mail us when it is convenient to them. We have even begun using e-mail to receive public comments on proposed DNR rules.

One of today’s major issues, for example, is a draft program from the Council of Great Lakes Governors to protect and wisely use water from the Great Lakes basin. You can go to the home page and read a variety of documents and you can provide your comments by e-mail. We’ll post the comments for all to see and those comments will be used to help the governors and premiers of two Canadian provinces develop rules based upon a consensus of opinion.

Want to keep up with DNR news? Go to the newsstand on the home page for the latest news items and subscribe to Wild Bulletin to keep track of what’s going on with the Division of Fish and Wildlife.

There’s so much to say about www.IN.gov/dnr that I felt I haven’t done it justice. So log on and check it out for yourself.

I have a couple of housekeeping tips. I announced the Outdoor Indiana photo uncontest in the last issue. Many schools were on summer break so you photography teachers should go to www.IN.gov/dnr for a school project of a lifetime.

And finally, some bittersweet news. Steve Polston, our senior editor for 10 years, is leaving the DNR to go to work on his own. We will miss his talent, his wit and his tireless commitment to Outdoor Indiana. Most of all, we will miss seeing our good friend every day.