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Photo credit: IN DNR Law Enforcement.
Over the last couple weeks, we've seen a blitz of concerning reports from organizations such as the American Fisheries Society, Save the Dunes, Great Lakes Fisheries Commission, the National Parks Conservation Association, and many others.
Many are detailing random cuts to personnel, seemingly without regard to agency priorities or staff performance. These folks are or were working on all manner of public priorities, such as understanding the spread of invasive lampreys in our lakes, enforcing laws, and finding ways to reduce excess salt from reaching our waterways.
A friend with a state DNR told me this week that cuts at the USDA have affected their work on Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, as well as wild rice management. Federal funding via the Pittman-Robertson Act is the financial backbone for many state wildlife departments, and he told me that these payments have stopped. I learned yesterday that a non-profit in our state's capital just had a major tree-planting grant cancelled.
Other cuts at the USDA fell on staff working on the bird flu, an outbreak that has hit wild and domesticated birds hard, recently killing over 1,500 Sandhill Cranes in Indiana.
While we are not anticipating any direct financial impact to our existing programs or projects, LMEF's mission - The preservation of an ecologically healthy Lake Maxinkuckee and its watershed - requires all hands on deck for the preservation of this public treasure. The State of Indiana follows The Public Trust Doctrine, which "provides that public trust lands, waters and living resources in a State are held by the State in trust for the benefit of all of the people." Please let your Congresspeople know that - despite our differences in opinions and perspectives - our public lands and waters deserve careful, consistent, and adequate protection.
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