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| News from Around the Farm World - June 16, 2010 |
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Governor announces major land conservation initiative
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — On Thursday, June 10, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced a major land conservation initiative that will position Indiana as a leader in wetlands and riparian protection. The new project, which includes two separate habitat areas, is the largest ever undertaken by the Department of Natural Resources.
The state will begin to acquire 43,000 acres located in the flood plain of the Wabash River and Sugar Creek in west central Indiana that will benefit wildlife, public recreation and the environment. The area, which follows 94 river miles along the Wabash River, stretches across four counties from Shades State Park to Fairbanks Landing Fish & Wildlife Area south of Terre Haute. The Wabash site is larger than the combined size of the Morgan-Monroe State Forest and Brown County State Park and will increase DNR-owned riparian wetland areas by more than 64 percent.
The state will use $21.5 million from the Lifetime License Trust Fund, a state trust fund dedicated to conservation purposes, and $10 million from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to begin the acquisitions. This investment will leverage millions of dollars in additional private and federal funding for both the protection and restoration of the corridor.
Additional support will come from The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Ducks Unlimited.
The DNR will work to acquire land in the area from willing sellers, building upon the recent excitement regarding the future Wabashiki Fish & Wildlife Area, a proposed 7,000-acre project along the Wabash River in West Terre Haute. The overall Wabash project eventually will be six times larger than the 8,000-acre Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area, which was purchased in 2006.
The key objectives of the initiative are to:
•design an effective model for sustainability of natural resources by connecting fragmented parcels of public land
•restore and enhance riparian corridors
•protect essential habitat for threatened and endangered species
•open public access for recreational opportunities; preserve significant rest areas for migratory birds, especially waterfowl; create a regionally significant conservation destination
•provide additional flood relief to current riparian landowners.
The Sugar Creek and Wabash River corridors are rich biological reservoirs containing many of Indiana’s rarest fish, mussels, birds and plants. Bald eagles and great blue herons nest in the river corridors, and the wooded valleys are home to such rare interior forest bird species as the Cerulean warbler. Federally endangered aquatic mussels such as the clubshell, Eastern fanshell, pink pucket and white wartyback are found in Sugar Creek or the Wabash. The Canada yew, Eastern hemlock and white pine – all ice age remnants now rare in Indiana – are abundant along Sugar Creek.
On Friday, June 11, Gov. Daniels announced the second major land conservation project in as many days as this one targeting more than 25,600 acres along the Muscatatuck River known as Muscatatuck Bottoms in Scott, Jackson and Washington counties.
Muscatatuck Bottoms contains the largest least-fragmented complex of bottomland forest remaining in Indiana. The forest is characterized by several species of oak, hickory and sweet gum.
The site provides habitat for a number of species of conservation concern, including such birds as the least bittern, yellow-crowned night heron, red-shouldered hawk and Cerulean warbler. Two state-endangered reptiles, the Kirtland’s snake and copperbelly watersnake, also are found there, as is featherfoil, a state-endangered plant.
Central Illinois farmer dies of fall
CROPSEY, Ill. (AP) — Authorities say a central Illinois farmer and small-town fire chief died from a fall, possibly from the top of a grain bin.
McLean County Coroner Beth Kimmerling says 63-year-old Richard Bruckner died Wednesday on his farm in Cropsey. The community is about 25 miles northeast of Bloomington.
Kimmerling on Thursday said an autopsy showed Bruckner died of multiple injuries. She says those injuries were consistent with a long fall.
The coroner speculated he may have fallen from a grain bin. Bruckner also was the fire chief in Cropsey.
Ohio farmhand pleads not guilty to animal cruelty
MARYSVILLE, Ohio (AP) _ A dairy farm worker accused of abusing cows in an undercover video has pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of cruelty to animals.
An attorney for 25-year-old Billy Joe Gregg Jr. of Ohio entered the plea Wednesday. Gregg appeared on a video conference Thursday in a separate court to plead not guilty to a felony gun charge. An animal welfare group says video it recorded for an undercover investigation showed Gregg and others beating cows with crowbars and poking them with pitchforks at Conklin Dairy Farms Inc. The farm has condemned the video footage and says it fired Gregg. Gregg remains in jail on a $100,000 bond.
A trial for the animal cruelty charges is scheduled for Aug. 16. |
| 6/16/2010 |
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