Crappie USA, Inc. will hold the Crappie USA Northern Regional Event on Indiana’s Patoka Lake June 5-6. The anglers fishing the tournament have qualified from local events held in Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Oklahoma.

The pre-qualified anglers will be fishing for a seven-fish limit of crappie both days, which could net them a check along with the opportunity to advance to the Cabela’s Crappie USA Classic.
A pre-tournament seminar will be held for the anglers qualified for the event on the evening of June 4 at Paoli Peaks in Paoli, Ind. Signup will begin at 5 p.m., with the meeting and a National Sponsor Field Test Product Drawing following at 7 p.m. local time. The seminar is open to the public and offers the chance to meet the top crappie anglers in the region.

The tournament weigh-in will be held Friday and Saturday beginning at 3 p.m. at the Hoosier Hills Marina, off Highway 545 on the west side of the lake. The weigh-in will be the perfect opportunity for non-competitors to learn how the big ones are caught by the top crappie anglers in the Northern Region. Interviews of the top five teams will be conducted after the weigh-in.

Firewood alert for EAB

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Division of State Parks and Reservoirs needs campers’ help keeping emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive insect that attacks ash trees, out of Brown County State Park and Monroe Lake.

Restricting firewood brought through the gate is the best way to prevent the spread of the insect, which has killed thousands of ash trees in Michigan, Ohio, northeastern Indiana and several other states. EAB has been found in Monroe and Brown counties, but not within the property boundaries of their two most popular and heavily-tread tourist attractions.

To help keep EAB away and preserve the shade, campers at Monroe Lake or Brown County State Park should not bring hardwood firewood with them from Monroe County, Brown County or any other Indiana county under EAB quarantine. Such firewood will not be allowed in any Indiana state park, reservoir or state forest campground.

An interactive map showing quarantined Indiana counties is online at www.IN.gov/dnr/entomolo/5349.htm

Visitors from quarantined counties (including Monroe and Brown counties) should not bring any hardwood firewood from home, because management will confiscate it as a precaution. Visitors may bring pine or scrap, kiln-dried lumber or firewood displaying a federal certification label or a state-compliance agreement label, or may purchase firewood after entering the property.
Marijuana operation shut down

Indiana Conservation officers and other DNR property personnel recently dismantled a suspected marijuana growing operation at Mississinewa Reservoir.  In taking apart the high-tech operation, they destroyed nearly 5,300 young plants with an undetermined street value.

“It can only be left up to one’s imagination as to the pounds of marijuana and the dollar amount this site could have yielded had it been tended until maturity and gone undetected,” said Conservation Officer John Salb, a public information officer for the DNR Division of Law Enforcement.

The discovery was made by a mushroom hunter, who notified a Mississinewa Reservoir employee. The employee in turn contacted DNR Conservation Officer Guido Tims about suspicious activity near Red Bridge State Recreation Area on the south side of the reservoir.

Tims made the initial investigation of the site in an area of dense vegetative cover and quickly determined it had been abandoned, upon finding a large amount of perishable food items left to rot at the makeshift campsite.

“We had two factors in our favor that stopped this operation in its early stages,” Salb said. “One being an individual who made a decision to get involved, and the other being our suspects probably didn’t expect mushroom hunters to be invading their growing areas.”

Tims and other officers eventually uncovered two hand-cut clearings measuring 25-by-100-yards and 25-by-150-yards. In addition, the officers found six large growing plots of marijuana sprouting from peat pots and other crude growing containers. Plant sizes ranged from seedlings to nearly four inches tall. The site also contained hand tools, backpack sprayers, fertilizer and animal repellants.
Conservation officers sifted through items left in the abandoned tents and turned evidence, including the plants, over to the Indiana State Police. Mississinewa Reservoir personnel and the state police assisted in the two-day effort.

“This situation should be a reminder to mushroom hunters, hikers, mountain bikers and anyone else who come across something of a suspicious nature in the outdoors,” said Lt. Mark Farmer of DNR Law Enforcement. “Don’t take matters into your own hands. Contact a Conservation officer.”

Spring Mill heirloom plant
and seed exchange June 6

Each year, Spring Mill State Park visitors have an opportunity to take home a natural part of the park during the annual Heirloom Plant and Seed Exchange scheduled to take place June 6.
From 1-4 p.m., visitors are invited to bring heirloom plants or seeds to Spring Mill’s Pioneer Village to trade with the village gardener or with other visitors. Heirlooms are plant varieties cultivated for at least 50 years, are open pollinated and produce seeds true to the original plant.

Gardeners with a large quantity of plants to trade may request a park-provided table space by calling 812-849-4129. Gardeners may temporarily park in the village circle drive to unload and load their plants.

Visitors who don’t have plants or seeds to trade will have the option to purchase plants from the Pioneer Village gardener. There is no fee for the program. Park entrance fees of $5 per vehicle for Indiana residents and $7 per vehicle for non-residents will apply.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments may contact Jack Spaulding by e-mail at jackspaulding@hughes.net or by writing to him in care of this publication.