Latest News
We thank Senator Greg Goode for introducing Senate Resolution 34: “A Senate Resolution recognizing the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape Partnership.” This resolution serves to increase awareness of the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape by acknowledging our partners, recognizing the economic impact of the military and agriculture, clarifying the need to protect open spaces, and commending the success of Busseron Creek Fish and Wildlife Area. We look forward to working with Senator Goode and all of Indiana’s legislators to promote military protections through conservation.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Partnerships
- Issues: Land
This is an exciting opportunity to join a twenty-year-old public interest law firm working on some of the most important and challenging conservation issues in the US and beyond. The Senior Lands Conservation Attorney will focus primarily on land conservation and habitat protection projects, including management of the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape project.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Partnerships
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land
After nearly two years of hard-fought litigation brought by Save the Dunes, the Town of Ogden Dunes announced it has “abandoned [its] project” to build a massive stone revetment along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Save the Dunes’ lawsuit challenged a permit issued by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (“DNR”) to allow this project.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Public Trust, Water
A new law to expand Indiana’s prescribed fire capacity was signed by Gov. Mike Braun on April 30. The bill expands a prescribed fire training program administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The bill also defines the liability for those certified through the training program.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land
A new Indiana law that expands the state’s prescribed burning capacity was signed by Indiana Governor Mike Braun on April 30, in part due to efforts by Indiana University Maurer School of Law students through the school’s Conservation Law Clinic.
- Services: Legal Education
- Issues: Education, Land
Busseron Creek is Indiana DNR’s largest conservation project in 20 years
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Nearly 4,000 acres in Sullivan County will become the new Busseron Creek Fish and Wildlife Area. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources was able to acquire more land, faster with the help of partners like the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape, the Conservation Fund and the Nature Conservancy.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Nature has reclaimed an old coal mine in southern Indiana, and state environmentalists have collaborated to ensure the land will belong to all Hoosiers.
Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources, working with the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape initiative and The Conservation Fund, have acquired nearly 4,000 acres of diverse habitat that will become the Busseron Creek Fish and Wildlife Area in Sullivan County.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
The Conservation Law Center and The Conservation Fund secured permanent protection of 4,000 acres in Southern Indiana, creating the Busseron Creek Fish & Wildlife Area, benefiting biodiversity, local communities, and climate resilience.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
A 3,950-acre conservation near LGTF, Indiana, ensures biodiversity, recreation, and resilience through partnerships, opening to the public in 2025.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Conservation Law Center is excited to announce the hire of Ben Taylor, our coordinator for the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape RCPP.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
SISL’s overarching goals are to preserve and protect military missions, support sustainable farming and forestry, restore and sustain ecosystems, ensure thriving human communities, and improve climate resiliency.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
A recent International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health report on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the United States highlights a disturbing truth: large-scale industrial farming is poisoning our air, water and communities.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Policy
- Issues: Land, Water
Conservation work is largely relationship-driven. One of Central Indiana Land Trust’s longtime champions, Michael Spalding, was not only instrumental in expanding Meltzer Woods in 2020. He also played a key role in the Lowe Tract’s protection.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
State Conservationist Damarys Mortenson announced today that Indiana’s USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is making funding available to help landowners protect and restore key forestland across southern Indiana through land easements. The funding is provided through the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). Eligible landowners must submit applications for the current funding pool on or before October 4.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Raenah Bailey is the Midwest Resilience Specialist for the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape and the Camp Ripley Sentinel Landscape.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Michael recently returned from a wildland firefighting assignment in California. He originally became certified as a wildland firefighter after completing the basic courses and training here at IU in October 2007. Since that time, he has continued to take additional classes and training, including the annual refresher to stay current on issues and policies, including the physical fitness test commonly known as the “pack test.”
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
SISL Coordinator, Rob McCrea, was invited to attend the Climate and Conservation Summit hosted by the Department of Defense and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in July.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Greetings from the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape. I hope you all are enjoying the good things that come along with spring such as listening to the spring peepers and chorus frogs or watching your favorite spring ephemerals while hunting for morels. As we continue to work through numerous projects including agreement negotiations for our NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program, I wanted to take the time to share some updates with you all. Have a safe and happy Spring. - Michael Spalding, SISL Program Coordinator
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
A Bloomington native, Rob received his law degree from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, and practiced at his grandfather’s law firm in Bloomington before deciding to return to his environmental roots, first working for Sycamore Land Trust as the Land Preservation Director and now at the Conservation Law Center as the Land Conservation Attorney. His work focuses on the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape project, for which CLC is the lead coordinator.
- Issues: Land
Michael Spalding, the Program Coordinator for the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape, has deep-rooted ties to conservation, stemming from his family’s land in central Indiana that dates back to 1889. Graduating with honors from Purdue University College of Agriculture in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry, he has dedicated more than 15 years to conservation efforts spanning 55 Indiana counties. Michael’s career has seen him work as a field forester in a forestry consulting firm and manage public forests, including Jackson-Washington, Yellowwood, Morgan- Monroe State Forests, and Atterbury Muscatatuck Training Center.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
We are pleased to announce that the Powell Township Board has enacted an official “RESOLUTION” rejecting the plan by the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association (MAMA) to rezone Granot Loma to build an industrial rocket launch site, finding under the Township Zoning Ordinance that it:
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
You may have noticed we took a break from our last newsletter as we anxiously awaited to hear the results of some exciting projects we have been pursuing. We can confidently say the wait was worth it. In this newsletter, you will find two keys projects that have now secured funding and will move to implementation over the coming months and years. Following that, we are highlighting several stories about fantastic progress by just a few of our committed and hard-working partners. As always, we remain thankful and grateful for the landowners of this landscape who choose conservation and the numerous partners whose work supports those positive actions.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
The CLC is proud to announce that the Brabson Family Foundation has continued to support our work with a grant of $20,000.
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land, Water
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.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
ODGEN DUNES — The possible construction of an armor stone revetment in Ogden Dunes has been challenged by the non-profit group Save the Dunes.
The organization filed an administrative appeal June 19 after the Indiana Department of Natural Resources approved Ogden-Dunes' request for a 2,970-foot-long, 10-foot-wide revetment along Lake Michigan’s lakeshore, according to a statement from Save the Dunes.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Public Trust, Water
A little more than three years ago, Lake Michigan was at its highest level in more than 30 years, and waves dashed up against the sheet steel piling that lakefront homeowners in the town of Ogden Dunes had installed in the 1980s and 1990s.
Worried that the piling was vulnerable and their homes were in danger, the town petitioned for permission to install a revetment — a layer of large, interlocking boulders along the shoreline — to protect their homes.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Public Trust, Water
(BLOOMINGTON, IN) The Conservation Law Center is excited to announce a new resource is now available for landowners within the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape. The Conservation Discovery Web Application will increase awareness and access to conservation options to help landowners effectively and sustainably manage their lands.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
An Indiana environmental group says the state is allowingutility AES Indiana to release more than 1 million gallons ofcontaminated water a day into the White River from coalash ponds at its Eagle Valley Generating Station inMartinsville in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Community-Centered Conservation, Land, Water
Along with colleagues from Syracuse University and INCAE, Costa Rica’s main business school, CLC Executive Director Christian Freitag recently co-authored an article concerning Nosara, Costa Rica, one of only five “blue zones” in the world.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Partnerships
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
We are proud of the progress that has been made in our landscape this past year and the bright future ahead. None of this could be possible without the hard work and time commitment from all of you, including both landowners dedicated to conservation and partnering organizations and agencies.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Conservation Law Center is excited to announce a first time award from the Ropchan Foundation to fund the Indiana Land Protection Program.
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
A ditch system dug nearly 100 years ago to drain Beaver Lake, formerly the largest natural lake in Indiana, is at the center of a legal battle between a 4,350-dairy cow CAFO and the neighboring Newton County residents.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
On October 31st, the US Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari filed by private landowners in the Pavlock case, declining to consider the legal questions posed by petitioners and to require further consideration by the 7th Circuit.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Public Trust, Water
Environmental law attorney Kim Ferraro might have only been half-joking when she claimed that if she had known at the start of her career what she knows now, she probably would have chosen a different practice area.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Legal Education
- Issues: Community-Centered Conservation, Land, Water
The Conservation Law Center is excited to announce Kacey Cook as the inaugural Constance and Terry Marbach Conservation Attorney.
The Marbach Conservation Attorney will focus primarily on land conservation and habitat protection projects. This position will be responsible for fostering existing relationships with land trusts and other clients as well as developing new relationships and projects for CLC.
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land
Conservation Law Center is pleased to announce that Rob McCrea has been hired as the Landscape Conservation Attorney.
Rob grew up hiking, hunting, and camping in the hills of southern Indiana. Rob’s passion for the outdoors began in his childhood camping at his family’s land in Monroe County with his father and friends. Rob studied Ecology and Natural History at Prescott College in Arizona and received his Law degree at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. While he has been fortunate to travel widely, his heart has always remained in Indiana.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Conservation Law Center is pleased to announce that Michael F. Spalding was recently hired as the Program Coordinator for the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape.
Michael grew up in central Indiana on land that has been in his family since 1889. His passion for conservation began while exploring the fields, forests, and streams of his family’s farm. Michael graduated magna cum laude from Purdue University College of Agriculture with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry in 2005. Since that time, he has performed conservation work in 55 counties throughout Indiana. He began his career as a field forester with a forestry consulting firm and has spent the past 15 years managing public forests at Jackson-Washington, Yellowwood, and Morgan-Monroe State Forests as well as Atterbury-Muscatatuck Training Center.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Today, the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) wishes a warm farewell and many thanks to its long-time Senior Attorney, Kim Ferraro, who is leaving HEC after 11 years to become the Senior Staff Attorney at the Conservation Law Center (CLC), effective August 1st.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Legal Education, Nonprofit Support, Partnerships, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Community-Centered Conservation, Land, Public Trust, Water
Conservation Law Center appreciates our long-standing relationship with the Herbert Simon Family Foundation and are proud to acknowledge their continued support of our efforts. This year, the Herbert Simon Family Foundation will be aiding us in our land conservation work which includes our ongoing support of Indiana land trusts as well as our new Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape program.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Partnerships, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
A new initiative that aims to strengthen Indiana’s military readiness will also help preserve and protect a large swath of southern Indiana around military installations.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
February 16, 2022 – The designation of more than 3.5 million acres in southern Indiana as a Sentinel Landscape will protect critical habitats and species, conserve natural resources, strengthen military readiness, and help the state prepare for environmental change. Southern Indiana is one of 3 new additions to the federal program, bringing the total to 10 nationwide.
- Services: Partnerships
- Issues: Land
Spring 2022 will be Professor Jeff Hyman’s final semester teaching the Conservation Law Clinic through Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Jeff has taught over 150 law students throughout his tenure with CLC, many of whom have gone on to practice environmental law as a career. It is safe to say he had high expectations of his students and held them to a high standard, but he also met them with honesty and respect. Clinic students have been fortunate to learn both the practice of law as well as specific areas of environmental law from such an experienced professional. Jeff will be missed!
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Public Trust, Water
Conservation Law Center is excited to announce the creation of a new position for the organization—the Constance and Terry Marbach Conservation Attorney.
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
Conservation Law Center is excited to announce a $10,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation to establish a new student fellowship program. The Duke Energy “Grass Roots” Conservation Fellowship will offer students at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law a paid internship to gain hands-on experience advocating for water conservation and improved water quality in the state of Indiana.
- Services: Legal Education
- Issues: Biodiversity, Community-Centered Conservation, Land, Water
In 2020, Conservation Law Center partnered with Hoosier Environmental Council and the Indiana Audubon Society in a suit against Natural Prairie and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Contrary to its name, Natural Prairie is a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) with over 4300 cows in the bed of the former Beaver Lake, once the largest natural lake in Indiana. Beaver Lake was part of the Grand Kankakee Marsh, at one point the country’s largest inland wetland, and this property sits adjacent to the Kankakee Sands, owned and managed as tallgrass prairie by The Nature Conservancy. This procedural win in the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana requires the US Army Corps of Engineers to go back and reassess its jurisdiction over these important wetlands. CLC is proud to partner with HEC and Indiana Audubon to protect this ecologically and historically important natural area.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Water
Finding the Army Corps of Engineers did not follow its own guidance and procedures, the Northern Indiana District Court has thrown out the Corps’ decision that a concentrated animal feeding operation built on a former wetland in Newton County is not under federal regulation.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Water
Pollution, deforestation, extinction of endangered species, and extreme weather events are taking their toll on today’s world. A nonprofit organization in Bloomington, Indiana is doing its part to reverse these trends.
- Services: Legal Education
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
This report, requested by the Macaw Recovery Network (MRN), details the ways in which the rapidly growing pineapple industry in Costa Rica threatens the survival of the Great Green Macaw, an already endangered species. It specifically examines the impacts of the pineapple industry on the environment, labor rights, and public health. It also provides overviews of several initiatives aimed at amending the pineapple industry and offers suggestions for enhancing Great Green Macaw conservation efforts. Finally, the report outlines potential next steps for continued research that may be helpful to MRN’s conservation efforts.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land
And they’re off, south for the winter! As birds head toward the winter home, they follow specific paths called “Flyways.” Along the way, they have to handle plenty besides the long journey alone, including urbanization, pollution, and changing conditions related to climate change. Throughout the years, Conservation Law Center has worked to preserve the migratory habitats the birds need to survive.
- Services: Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
A familiar name from a different email address feels out of context. Upon further investigation it is perfectly in context. Andrea Lutz has been my ‘forever’ Upland Brewing Company contact.
Now, she is the spokesperson with the Conservation Law Center headquartered near the IU Bloomington campus.
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
Conservation Law Center is excited to welcome Andrea Lutz in the newly created position of Director of Advancement. This new role replaces the prior Director of Development position and will expand the responsibilities to include administering the organization’s development and marketing initiatives, as well as program expansion and management.
- Issues: Biodiversity, Community-Centered Conservation, Land, Public Trust, Water
Thank you to the Herbert Simon Family Foundation who has awarded the Conservation Law Center a $60,000 grant to further our work in water quality and land conservation.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Policy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Water
Each school year, second- and third-year law students at the IU Maurer School of Law have the opportunity to enroll for credit as interns in our Conservation Law Clinic, one of Maurer’s six public interest clinics focused on providing students a hands-on learning experience working with real clients. Under the supervision of CLC attorneys, student interns work closely with each other and with the attorneys on live legal matters for our myriad clients who need assistance with natural resource conservation issues.
- Services: Legal Education
- Issues: Biodiversity, Community-Centered Conservation, Land, Public Trust, Water
Land conservation has always been one of Conservation Law Center’s focus areas. With a combined 60 years of experience, Christian Freitag, our Executive Director, and Bill Weeks, our Board Chair and Founder, have continually improved our legal support of land trusts, helping them do their work better and faster.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
We continue to work on solutions to Indiana’s water quality challenges thanks to a generous gift of $40,000 from the Herbert Simon Family Foundation.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
George Rogers Clark Land Trust and the Center made history with the closing on Indiana’s first farmland easement under the USDA’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land
Harrison County agreement marks the first use of the federal agricultural land easement component in Indiana.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land
This past June, I accepted an invitation from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and Ocean University of China to participate in the 2019 Public Affairs Governance Workshop in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China.
- Services: Nonprofit Support, Policy
- Issues: Land, Water
Is your right to access Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline a national concern? On October 5th, the US Supreme Court was asked to decide if it would consider the issue of the boundary of public rights on the shoreline. Their answer could set a national precedent.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Public Trust, Water
On December 7th, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that Indiana's Lake Michigan shoreline is held in trust for the public up to the ordinary high-water mark. The opinion, setting an important precedent, recognizes the public trust in Indiana.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Public Trust, Water
Thanks to the efforts of the Friends of White River (FOWR), the banks along a stretch of riparian corridor in Warfleigh and Broad Ripple will retain vegetation originally slated for removal.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Water
For a good portion of the year, CLC has been representing Friends of the White River in a Tree Clearing Settlement Agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to ensure that the proposed tree clearing on the Indianapolis banks of the White River represents the community as well as the safety concerns it addresses.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Water
Peter Murrey and the CLC recently submitted comments on behalf of the Hoosier Environmental Council encouraging stricter oversight of bankrupt coal companies. We urged the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) to develop regulations requiring insolvent and nearly insolvent corporations to post bonds covering clean-up costs, instead of merely making promises they may never fulfill.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land
Conservation Law Center Director Bill Weeks has been named Chair of an American Bar Association Task Force on Conservation Easement Law. Under the auspices of the Real Property, Trust, and Estate Law Section, the Task Force will work over the next year to develop recommendations for improving the clarity of applicable federal tax law, and the enhancing the conservation results achieved.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land
The CLC is assisting The Nature Conservancy in clearing mineral encumbrances from properties in the Wabash River watershed for conservation.
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
On behalf of Friends of the White River, CLC has challenged the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ decision to authorize the permanent destruction of more than seven acres of mature hardwood forest and other high-quality riparian habitat along Indianapolis’s White River levee.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Water
The Indiana Supreme Court has granted CLC's request for leave to file a friend of the court brief on behalf of the Hoosier Environmental Council.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land
The CLC believes that conservation easements are essential for conservation, and that they will be more effective if key public officials know how they work. Thus, in May, CLC joined with the Columbia University School of Law Charities Oversight Project and the National Association of State Charities Officials to sponsor a conference on the law of conservation easements.
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
CLC is representing the Alliance for the Great Lakes and Save the Dunes in litigation over the application of the public trust and the boundary of the State of Indiana's ownership of the shore of Lake Michigan. The lawsuit began when certain owners of lakeside property sued the Town of Long Beach, claiming a town resolution interfered with their rights. The complaint asks the court to declare that there is no public right in the shore landward of the water's edge. CLC’s clients believe that the conservation interest in the lakeshore will be best served by defending the claim of public rights in the shoreland.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Biodiversity, Land, Public Trust, Water
The CLC's Jeff Hyman represented three Indiana environmental groups in oral arguments before the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday, March 15, in a case that will have repercussions for advocacy organizations throughout Indiana.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
The CLC prepared the third in a series of conservation easement guides for the Land Trust Alliance (LTA).
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
In partnership with The Nature Conservancy, CLC has developed a manual for landowners in Indiana and Illinois who are interested in preserving their land by donating conservation easements, but are concerned that lingering mineral interests on their land could complicate or undermine their efforts.
- Services: Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
The Conservation Law Center is representing three Indiana environmental groups in litigation filed by the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation (IKEC), the operators of the Clifty Creek power station in southern Indiana.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land, Water
CLC Staff Attorney, Jeffrey B. Hyman, has been named the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) "Litigator of the Year" for his talents and dedication, especially in regards to the IKEC v. Citizens Groups case.
- Services: Legal Advocacy, Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land, Water
Indiana's Hoosier Environmental Council has asked for CLC's help in advancing their interests in an upcoming rulemaking that will change the way Confined Animal Feeding Operations -- or factory farms -- are regulated.
- Services: Legal Advocacy
- Issues: Land
In mid-October, CLC attorneys presented workshops at the annual national meeting of the Land Trust Alliance in Portland, Oregon. Bill co-presented the workshop "Conservation Easements in a Changing World - Balancing Flexibility with Permanence."
- Services: Legal Education, Nonprofit Support
- Issues: Land
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