Save the Dunes is looking to deepen its commitment and partnership with Indiana Dunes National Park this year.
Executive Director Betsy Maher announced the plans during a Northwest Indiana Green Drinks conference call Thursday night.
“We’re really excited because we’re finding new sources of funding for them,” she said,
“and believe that the community is behind supporting this partnership.”
Since the name change from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 2019, there are more resources available to do work that needs to be done, Maher said.
“We’re actually entering into what’s called a philanthropic partnership agreement. We’ll be an official partner of the national park in not just advocating for resources as we’ve always done, and going out and getting those federal appropriations, but also seeking out funds through the philanthropic community,” she said.
Among key projects lined up for this is privately funded restoration work at Miller Woods. U.S. Steel neighbors the Miller Woods area of the national park and has a buffer zone between the mill and the park. Maher showed a wetland habitat on park property and the fence line where U.S. Steel’s property starts.
Wetland invasives are just on the other side of the border, so Save the Dunes is planning to address invasives in the buffer zone to keep them from entering the park as well as cleaning up the other side of the fence.
“We’re very, very excited that U.S. Steel has stepped forward to fund this project on which we expect to get underway this coming year,” Maher said.
Nevil Gomes and Pooja Chari from Indianapolis climb the dunes on the Miller Woods Trail in the Indiana Dunes National Park on May 18, 2019.
Save the Dunes is also working with the park on a plastic reduction project for vendors and visitors.
“Plastics are a real challenge for the national park and all the dunes and lakefront,” she said. Along the Great Lakes, plastics are washed ashore. A lot of people bring in plastics when they’re visiting the dunes, too, Maher said.
“This project is geared at reaching the no-plastic goal for all national parks by 2030, so we’re getting ahead of that and working directly with the park on a plan that addresses how plastics get into the park, including through their vendors.”
An outreach campaign for visitors is planned as well. “We hosted our Dunes Dash race earlier last year at the park, and we had our own zero plastic waste goal for that project,” she said. “So instead of handing out plastic water bottles, we handed out reusable water bottles that hopefully people will continue to use and bring to the dunes.”
“We had a before and after analysis of our race, and they only found one piece of plastic on the race course after our race, so I think it was a really successful event in that sense that our messaging worked,” she said.
The nonprofit is also working to increase the amount of accessible equipment so everyone can enjoy the beauty of the dunes. The nonprofit received a grant to purchase accessible wheelchairs. It’s also purchasing accessible kayaks, like tandem kayaks, so people can be taken out on the east branch and other areas of the park. The equipment can be rented or used for special occasions.
“There’s several other things that come along with that accessibility project, so we’re very excited about all of these initiatives with the park,” Maher said.
Save the Dunes continues to advocate for federal resources for the park, too.
For 13 years, Save the Dunes has been the the Indiana state lead for the Healing Our Waters coalition, traveling every year to Washington, D.C., to advocate for federal resources for the Great Lakes and that benefit the Indiana Dunes specifically.
Another round of funding through the Great American Outdoors Act is becoming available. At the national park, that law has been used to fund restoration work underway at the Goodfellow Lodge, Bailly Homestead and House of Tomorrow.
At the state level, Save the Dunes is awaiting a decision on an administrative appeal with the Department of Natural Resources, which is responsible for protecting the shoreline for public use.
That involves establishing the “natural ordinary high water mark,” which delineates what can be private and what is public territory. “Anything upland of that is considered private property and it can be developed, but anything below that mark all the way down to the waters of Lake Michigan is public and cannot be developed,” Maher explained.
“If there is development happening below that ordinary high water mark, we are there to say, ‘No, this is a public space,’ and that it can’t be used for private interests,” she said. “That can be quite contentious at times, but we feel it’s very important to keep our beaches natural – or as natural as they can be – so that the dunes can form and so that we can have the greatest resource of our state, which is our shoreline,” Maher said.
The Indiana Dunes area is the state’s No. 1 tourist destination, so it’s important to think about the long term, she said.
Maher expects the judge’s decision on that appeal later this year.
A grant just shy of $1 million for a climate resilience project in the Calumet region includes nine focal areas, including the Indiana Dunes. This isn’t just a coastal issue but involves inland areas in the Lake Michigan watershed, Maher explained.
“A lot of critical work will be able to get underway because of this funding,” she said. The conservation action plan alignment report, which Save the Dunes was heavily involved in creating, identified threats to the ecosystems and the people who live there. The plan prioritizes how to address those threats.
As part of this project, Save the Dunes is hiring a conservation coordinator to ensure that this project takes place. The funding lasts three years.
A $20 million NWI THRIVE grant aims to connect communities and areas in the national park through bike trails. It also improves signage along the trails and develops visitor information hubs at trailheads.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
