SISL Update - Spring 2024
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SISL Update for Winter 2023
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Join us to explore the role prescribed fire, a carefully planned and executed practice, plays in maintaining the health, vitality, and biodiversity of our Hoosier oak-hickory and grassland ecosystems.
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Conservation Law Center is excited to announce that the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County has chosen us as one of 18 local organizations to receive matching funds through June of 2025, as well as a $10,000 operational grant to support staff and fundraising needs.
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“You’ve got to be an environmental scientist or an engineer to respond to these permits," Gary resident Doreen Carey said during an October panel held at Indiana University Northwest.
Though he may not be an engineer, attorney Mike Zoeller has been helping Lake County community groups parse dense environmental permits for over a year. Now Zoeller is working with the Conservation Law Center, which operates out of Indiana University's Maurer School of Law, to establish an Environmental Legal Aid Program that will provide free legal services to residents of Gary, Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago — all cities that have been overburdened with pollution for decades.
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CLC announces the launch of the organization’s Environmental Legal Aid Program to serve the environmental legal needs of local residents, advocates and community groups in Gary, Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago (“the Region”). The new program builds on CLC’s mission of providing free representation to environmental non-profits tackling critical environmental health and justice issues, as well conservation organizations engaged in protecting natural resources, water quality, and wildlife habitat.
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Question: Explain why natural land conservation is capacity issues and opportunities for important to address climate change?
McCrea: Natural land conservation serves as the cornerstone of the global effort to preserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems. It starts at the local level with place-based decision- making and culminates into regional efforts that connect vast areas and ecosystems. This creates corridors for ecosystem-based adaptation to build resiliency to climate change.
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Question: Indiana’s water quality is a critical concern, and CLC’s Water Report identified 14 recommendations to improve it. Could you highlight some of the most pressing water quality issues in Indiana, and how these recommendations address them?
Freveletti: Indiana has an abundance of fresh water that, for years, has acted as an economic driver across the state. While this has produced benefits, especially for some industries and sectors, it has also resulted in the majority of Indiana’s waterways being polluted. When the water quality is poor, future quantity available for producers and industries is also affected. CLC described this dynamic in its 2016 Water Report. For example, the Report recommends addressing the issue of E. coli contamination by creating vegetated buffers to reduce agricultural runoff. The Report also recommends that Indiana water management authorities should take the environmental, ecological, and social values, along with the economic value, into consideration when making water planning decisions. Indiana has made progress on some of these recommendations but there is more to be done.
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uestion: I know you have a background in land protection. Could you please share your insights on how the preservation of land, habitat, and species intersect?
Freitag: I’m a systems guy. The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone, as they say. You care about critters? Then save the places they need to live and eat and mate. You worry about how the critters will adapt to climate change? Connect the protected landscapes so they can move. And for heaven’s sake, take care of the water. Every life depends on it. But most importantly, understand that human beings are not separate from nature but instead a participant. As Jane Goodall says, you cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you, so decide what kind of impact that will be. What will your grandchildren say about your impact?
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Question: What initially drew you to environmental justice issues, and how has your commitment to this cause evolved throughout your legal career?
Ferraro: Early on in my practice, I was involved in a legal challenge of a Clean Air Act permit that Indiana’s environmental agency issued for the BP oil refinery inWhiting, Indiana. The permit authorized BP to expand its already massive refinery on the shores of Lake Michigan to process heavy crude oil extracted from the Canadian tar sands and piped in via the controversial Enbridge pipeline. Making matters worse, this permit exempted BP from having to install pollution controls. This allowed for the release of cancer-causing air toxics, smog-forming pollutants, and climate-warming greenhouse gases from processing tar sands, which is a fuel even dirtier than coal.
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Question: What is the public trust doctrine?
Cook: The public trust is a legal doctrine that has been passed down from Roman law through British common law and finally to federal and state law here in the United States. Under the doctrine, certain natural resources are held in trust by the government for the benefit of the public.
The public trust has been recognized to extend to a variety of natural resources and to protect several public uses, varying from state to state. As trustee of the public trust resources, the State is required to steward them for the benefit of current and future generations.
Lake Michigan is one of Indiana’s most important public trust resources, and CLC has played a key role in advocating for the recognition and protection of the public’s rights to the lake and its beaches.
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Question: What specific goals and objectives does the Sentinel Landscape program aim to achieve in Southern Indiana?
Spalding: We are currently drafting our strategic plan to guide us through the next three years. Our core goals will focus on preserving and protecting military missions, supporting sustainable farming and forestry, restoring and sustaining ecosystems, and increasing landscape resiliency. We will be focusing on strategies and actions that promote wise land use, permanently protect land, encourage sustainable land management practices, restore degraded ecosystems, utilize natural climate solutions, and improve water quality.
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The Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape (SISL) partnership is excited to announce approval of a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) for the 3.5-million-acre SISL area.
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Conservation Law Center is incredibly excited to announce that the Efroymson Family Fund has awarded us a generous grant to support our mission and marketing efforts. The Efroymson Family Fund helps support nonprofit organizations across Central Indiana. Their gift to us will help fund the positions of several critical full-time staff members, build out new and existing conservation programs, and bolster our day-to-day operations.
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The CLC is proud to announce that the Brabson Family Foundation has continued to support our work with a grant of $20,000. This generous grant will help CLC to update its existing conservation easement (CE) template, as well as create two additional templates for use by land trusts that will benefit Hoosiers statewide.
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Macaw Recovery Network announces its first land purchase toward the restoration of habitat for the critically endangered Great Green Macaw. Its purchase of La Peninsula in northern Costa Rica will help save not only this magnificent bird but all forest wildlife that share its habitat.
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