Category: Legislative

Don’t Sell Our American Heritage: Why Federal Lands Matter to Indiana

ublic Lands are one of America’s greatest ideas. Access to our nation’s great landscapes and wildlife is uniquely American, copied by countries the world over. Shared ownership and pride in the greatest of our lands has created generations of conservationists and allowed those without vast wealth to experience our nation’s greatness. Despite overwhelming support for America’s vast network of public lands, this ideal is under threat. Large sales of public lands are currently being considered by our elected officials. Now is the time to reach out and make sure your members of Congress know that you value access to public lands for recreation and conservation.

 

Our Executive Director, Dan Boritt, recently published an op-ed in the Indianapolis Business Journal explaining the importance of these lands to Hoosiers and all Americans. Check it out https://bit.ly/4j23CND to learn more. Public lands throughout Indiana and our nation are drivers of our economy, reservoirs of environmental diversity, and vital to what it means to be American.

 

If you are unable to access the op-ed via the IBJ it is also reprinted below.

 

Don’t Sell Our American Heritage: Why Federal Lands Matter to Indiana

As budget talks heat up in Washington DC, Congress is considering selling off our nation’s heritage. When we think of America’s great public lands, Indiana does not immediately jump to mind, yet over 500,000 acres of Indiana’s land is jointly owned by the American people.  The idea of divesting our shared American heritage is a dangerous precedent that carries significant negative implications for Indiana and its citizens while betraying one of America’s greatest ideas, public lands for all.

Within Indiana’s borders our federal lands provide Hoosiers with an opportunity to experience real Indiana and be reminded of our nation’s heritage. Indiana Dunes National Park, Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Muscatatuck and Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuges, Hoosier National Forest are all part of the fabric of our nation. This is truly what makes America Great. Selling off these iconic lands would lead to restricted access, prioritizing private profit over public use.

Indiana Dunes National Park photo from Pixabay

Just last week Indiana celebrated the opening of Busseron Creek Fish and Wildlife Area. Over 4000 acres of land, permanently protected by our state for Hoosiers to enjoy in perpetuity. We are a state starving for public lands where Hoosiers can hike hunt and fish. Milestones like the opening of Busseron Creek are rightfully celebrated. We must make clear that Indiana needs more, not less public land.

Photo of ribbon cutting at Busseron Creek Fish and Wildlife Area (photo by Dan Boritt)

Federal lands play a crucial role in conservation and biodiversity. They provide habitats for countless species. The fragmentation and potential development of these lands could have unforeseen consequences for our nation’s delicate ecosystems, impacting Indiana wildlife, our drinking water and Hoosier’s opportunity to hunt, fish, hike and experience our natural heritage.

Image by Eszter Miller from Pixabay

Beyond the economic and environmental arguments, there’s a fundamental principle at stake: these lands belong to all Americans. They are a legacy passed down through generations, offering opportunities for recreation, education, and spiritual connection with the natural world. Selling them off diminishes this shared inheritance and frankly devalues the American ideal.

Some proponents argue that selling federal lands could alleviate government debt or even solve the housing affordability crisis. However, this short-sighted approach overlooks the long-term value these lands provide. Once sold, they are gone, and the potential for future public benefit is lost forever. We must not sacrifice our national treasures for a tenuous temporary financial fix.

As Hoosiers, we must demand that our elected officials stand firm against any proposal to sell off federal lands. Let us protect America’s greatest idea, today and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Dan Boritt

Executive Director, Indiana Wildlife Federation

 

  Public_Lands_opEd

 

April 2025 Legislative Watch List

 

Indiana bill takes aim at chronic wasting disease, but critics fear plan will hurt wild deer

ENVIRONMENT

Indiana bill takes aim at chronic wasting disease, but critics fear plan will hurt wild deer

Karl Schneider

Indianapolis Star

Published 5:18 a.m. ET Feb. 13, 2025

A state lawmaker’s proposal aimed at protecting Indiana’s wild white-tailed deer from a fatal disease is drawing support from deer farmers, but has many hunters and wildlife advocates concerned.

House Bill 1417, filed by Rep. Robert Morris, R-Fort Wayne, would create a pilot program to combat Chronic Wasting Disease by testing deer and looking for certain genetic markers that create a higher resiliency to the fatal disease. It also would require the state’s Board of Animal Health and Department of Natural Resources to create a program to “enhance the genetic durability of Indiana’s white-tail deer population.”

The bill passed its initial committee hearing but faces a Feb. 17 deadline for approval by the full House before it is sent to the Senate. It’s unclear if the bill will make the deadline.

The goal of the proposed project is to selectively breed deer with genetic markers that appear to provide more resiliency to CWD, effectively letting deer with infected with the disease live longer.

“With the newly collected data,” Morris said, “the state will be better informed and better able to address (chronic wasting disease) in the future.”

Where the discussion gets dicey is over the concept of releasing those new, genetically modified deer to mate with white-tailed deer in the wild.

The bill initially would have required DNR to release the deer with better resiliency to CWD into the wild, but the language — and directive — was dialed back at a committee hearing in late January to make releases optional rather than mandatory.

Still, the approach is concerning to Catherine Appling-Pooler, director of policy for the National Deer Association. She said the organization is not opposed to genetic research in deer, but the Indiana bill is putting the cart before the horse.

“We don’t support the release of captive deer into the wild,” Appling-Pooler said. “That’s not part of CWD management recommendations.”

The bill sounds great on paper, she said, but a deeper examination of the language causes concern and CWD management should not be forced through legislation.

“By mentioning the release of captive deer, it seems to me like the conclusion has been drawn before the research has been done,” Appling-Pooler said. “The last time I checked, that’s not how it works.”

What is chronic wasting disease?

Chronic wasting disease is a terminally fatal illness brought on by abnormal proteins — known as prions — in deer, elk and moose. The abnormal proteins can gather in an animal’s central nervous and lymphatic systems and cause degeneration, or “wasting-away” death, according to the USDA.

There are no cures or vaccines for the disease, and infected deer can spread the disease through saliva, feces and urine even before appearing sick. The abnormal proteins can stick to the soil and plants and remain infectious for years, according to the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab.

Indiana documented its first case of chronic wasting disease last April during deer season in LaGrange County. The infected deer likely crossed into the state from either Michigan or Ohio, according Chris Smith, deputy director of DNR.

 

The aim of the bill

Morris said HB1417 would help Indiana establish a baseline for its deer population by collecting more data. It also establishes rules for the pilot program to make sure it works best for the state.

Chris Seabury, a veterinary professor at Texas A&M University, testified during a House Natural Resources committee hearing. Seabury said he has worked with prion diseases for 25 years and developed a system that scores deer based on how resistant they were to CWD.

The scores can help selectively breed deer that can live longer with CWD.

Seabury said he and his colleagues used this system to successfully clean up a captive deer breeding operation suffering from CWD. Since then, Texas and Oklahoma have also tried this system on wild deer populations.

Gathering data on Indiana’s deer population is imperative, Seabury said. There is, however, no next step toward combating CWD and this bill would provide Indiana with a way to manage the disease.

Smith, the deputy DNR director, said one of the department’s main concerns is the cost of testing. Each test will cost $75, which does not include the staff time to collect the samples. DNR would require several thousand tests to get a genetic baseline.

Deer farmers in Indiana testified in support of the bill during hearing, but hunters and wildlife advocates remained opposed.

Buck Fever:Trophy deer industry linked to disease, costs taxpayers millions

Keeping wild deer wild

Gene Hopkins with the Indiana Sportsman’s Roundtable told state lawmakers the health of the state’s wild deer herd and the preservation of wild heritage genetics is important and opposed the bill.

“The Indiana deer herd is the envy of the Midwest and probably the nation,” Hopkins said. “We don’t want to risk what we have spent all these years building.”

Dan Boritt, executive director of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, told IndyStar there is no clear science that shows selective breeding prevents death when a deer has chronic wasting disease.

“Living longer sounds great, but if you are still being infected and living longer, you are further able to spread this highly contagious disease throughout the population,” Boritt said.

States like Pennsylvania, where estimates show there’s about a 75% occurrence of CWD in deer, might be better suited for this kind of project, Boritt said.

“In a state like Indiana where we have only this one instance documented in the wild, why would you risk spreading that disease further throughout the herd?” Boritt said.

Matt Wright, executive director at the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma, said science at this time does not back these releases into the wild.

Oklahoma passed a nearly identical bill last year and is on track to begin releases into the wild. Wright said his organization did not support the Oklahoma legislation because it involved the state’s wild deer population. For now, he said, that work should remain in the lab.

“We have no problem with research to beat CWD,” Wright said. “But if you do release these deer into the wild population, there is no turning that back. They are out there.”

IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on BlueSky @karlstartswithk.bsky.social

2025 Legislative Watch List

As 2025 kicks off with many familiar faces, as well as numerous new faces, IWF continues to monitor the legislative session ensuring our members are well-informed of the multiple bills that could affect wildlife, natural resources, and public access. As always, this session is shaping up to be a mixed bag with a variety of bills advancing those issues we care about and some that we fear could be a detriment to our shared vision of Indiana. Below we will highlight eleven bills the Indiana Wildlife Federation plans to engage on, and in some cases call on you to lift up our voice, and a variety of bills we are currently tracking and will engage with should the need arise.

A full list of the bills we are tracking can be found on our website under the advocacy tab.

Photo by Aaron J Hill

Senate Bill 32: Prevention of Chronic Wasting Disease

IWF Opposes this Legislation

Senate Bill 32 was introduced by a long-time advocate of conservation in our state, Senator Sue Glick (R-13). Senator Glick, Assistant President Pro-Tempore and chair of the chair of the Natural Resources Committee introduced this legislation in reaction to the recently discovered cases of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in her district. While we applaud the Senator’s intent to find a solution to this serious threat to the white-tailed deer population in our state, IWF and our partners believe that this proposed solution would not only fail at protecting our wildlife it could potentially cause catastrophic harm to our herd.

This legislation, as written, would direct a state-wide program of breeding captive deer with a combination of alleles that have been shown to give deer a longer life once infected with CWD. While longer-lived deer are often a good outcome, in this case, infected deer have been shown in captivity to live marginally longer but continue to shed CWD prions until their inevitable demise. Not only does this combination of alleles not provide immunity to deer, it is highly probable that this mutation is shared with other physical traits that could reduce the survivability of white-tailed deer in the wild.

Lastly, the scientific community is in near consensus that the magnitude of captive-bred deer, possessing this trait, that would be required to meaningfully impact the wild population’s genetic makeup as it relates to CWD, would be so vast that it would be unfeasible to carry out.

With all this in mind, as well as the support of a variety of statewide and national sportsman and conservation groups, the Indiana Wildlife Federation has testified to the potential harm of this legislation in the Natural Resources Committee. Currently, this legislation has been tabled and IWF will continue to monitor it and will fight the release of any captive-bred deer into our thriving wild population.

Senate Bill 121:  Restrictions of Using Nets or Trapping Minnows

IWF Supports this Legislation (with recommendations for changes)

Senate Bill 121 was written by Senators Spencer Deery (R-23), Majority Whip Michael Crider (R-28), Scott Baldwin (R-20) and co-authored by James Thomes (R-49). SB121 looks to address a growing problem in our state, over-harvesting of aquatic life through netting. While netting can certainly play a role in responsible angling there has been a rise in the unsustainable harvest of numerous minnows, including many fish that are prohibited without proper permitting.

The Indiana Wildlife Federation applauds the authors of this bill for trying to find a solution to the increasing problem of netting in our tributaries and rivers. We support this legislation and are looking into ways we can help the authors improve the legislation and ensure that there is both enforcement and education to help ensure a thriving fish population throughout our state.

 

Senate Bill 538:  PFAS Chemicals

IWF Opposes this Legislation

SB 538, authored by Senator Zay (R-17) limits the ability of state agencies to regulate PFAS (forever chemicals) in a manner that is more restrictive than the Federal government. While this may not have been problematic in the current administration, with the incoming Presidential administration we expect environmental regulations to be greatly reduced. If this is the case Hoosiers will need our state to have the autonomy to properly protect our water, wildlife and population from harmful “forever chemicals.”

 

House Bill 1286:  PFAS Chemicals

IWF Supports this Legislation

HB 1286, authored by Representative Beck Cash (R-25) and co-authored by Representative Julie McGuire (R-93) requires the Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to publish a registry of persons known to have discharged PFAS into the waters of Indiana. While this legislation would not seek to establish penalties for these discharges it will shed light on an increasing problem in our state, and we hope will be the first step towards limiting these discharges.

House Bill 1025:  Treated Seeds

IWF Supports this Legislation

HB 1025, authored by Representative Mike Aylesworth (R-11) requires the state seed commissioner to study the impacts of seeds treated with certain insecticides, reporting their findings to the interim study committee. While this legislation may seem out of the prevue of the Indiana Wildlife Federation, the impacts of this could have profound impacts on wildlife in our state. Certain insecticides are known to have deleterious effects on both terrestrial and aquatic insects. Studies have tied the drastic loss of aquatic insects, the basis of our rivers and stream’s food web, to particular insecticides used in agriculture. Learning the impacts of these potentially harmful compounds is a vital first step to correcting them.

 

House Bill 1234:  Conservation of Agricultural Land

IWF Supports this Legislation

HB 1234, authored by Representative Kendell Culp (R-16) seeks to establish a land protection program that allows the state of Indiana, or a country within the state, to accept agricultural land and hold it. Additionally, it seeks to provide funding for acquisition and management. Given the vast amount of agricultural land in our state and the amount being converted into low-grade construction, this bill would help to stem development and keep agricultural land, which can serve as wildlife habitat, from development.

 
Photo by Tyler Mascola

Senate Bill 211:  Clean Water Indiana program

IWF Supports this Legislation

SB 211, authored by Senator Glick (R-13) allows for the use of funds from the Clean Water Indiana fund to be utilized in the management of invasive species. Invasive species have the ability to contribute greatly to the decreased water quality and currently funds from the clean water Indiana fund are not permitted to combat invasives plants. In order to allow environmental stewards, like those working for our soil and water conservation districts (SWCD), environmental organizations and land trusts this legislation is necessary.

 

House Bill 1190: Water Quality

IWF Supports this Legislation

HB 1190, authored by Assistant Majority Caucus Chair David Abbott seeks to establish a permanent water protection and conservation fund and water quality board. This would be a great step in increasing funding for the protection of our natural waters in the state.

 

House Bill 1237: State Mammal

IWF Supports this Legislation

HB 1237, authored by Representative Victoria Garcia Wilburn (D-32) seeks to name the Indiana Bat (Myotis sodalis) the state mammal of Indiana. Currently, Indiana has no official state mammal and IWF believes the Indiana bat is an ideal candidate to represent Indiana’s natural heritage.

 

House Bill 1417:  Prevention of CWD

IWF Opposes this Legislation

HB 1417, authored by Representative Bob Morris (R-84) and co-authored by Representative Beau Baird (R-44) is very similar to SB 32, and the Indiana Wildlife Federation opposes it for the same reason.

 

 
Photo by Lucas Pezeta

House Bill 1557:  Prescribed Burning

IWF Supports this Legislation

HB 1557, authored by Representative Beau Baird (R-44) establishes a legal framework for the use of prescribed fire in the managing of natural landscapes. This legislation seeks to develop a safe framework for how land managers can safely use fire to combat invasive plants, improve forest stands and regenerate habitat throughout the state. HB 1557 also tasks the Indiana Department of Forestry with establishing a Certified Prescribed Burn Manager Program to ensure safe and standardized techniques for utilizing fire. This bill also clarifies liability concerns and reduces perceived risks associated with prescribed fire for landowners and practitioners and aligns the state with other Midwestern states that have similar laws. Prescribed fire is one of the most important tools for land managers to battle invasive plants while providing high quality habitat to wildlife throughout the state. Fire has shaped Indiana’s ecosystems, and numerous native plants and animals depend on periodic burning to thrive. It knocks back invasive plants, encourages the growth of native grasses and forbs, and creates open areas that benefit species like Ruffed grouse, Bobwhite and numerous grassland birds. Additionally fire reduces understory growth, improves sunlight penetration, allowing oak species to regenerate.

In addition to the eleven priority bills listed above, the Indiana Wildlife Federation will continue to monitor numerous bills, approximately forty, and constantly assess their impact on our wildlife and wild spaces. Throughout this legislative session, we will update you on the progress of these bills and more. We may also seek your help to convince your legislators to stand up for wildlife and their habitats.

 

Thank you for your continued support of IWF, without you, we could not do the work we do, standing up for wildlife throughout the state.