The 2025 Session of Indiana General Assembly has officially begun and IFA has hit the ground running with three priority bills:
House Bill (HB) 1245, authored by Rep. Dave Hall (R-Norman) and co-authored by Reps. Steve Bartels (R-Eckerty), Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) and Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) would allow some counties to add a $1 surcharge to the entrance fees charged at DNR properties to go towards emergency services.
This is needed for counties like Brown, Jackson, Crawford and others with significant State Parks, State Forests and Recreation Areas as thousands of residents who travel into these counties to enjoy DNR properties do not currently contribute to the tax revenue which funds EMS and public safety.
The $1 surcharge would not apply to passholders, only those paying the entry fee. IFA supports this legislation and believes it is very important to address the shortfalls in funding that result to rural counties when large acreages of their land are withdrawn from the property tax rolls. When the state ignores these impacts to counties, their resistance to more public land only grows.
HB 1447, also authored by Rep. Hall, and co-authored by Reps. Kyle Miller (D-Fort Wayne) and Robb Greene (R-Shelbyville) will require the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to set aside 10% of each State Forest to return to the old growth condition in tracts of at least 500 acres when possible. While 10% may not sound like a lot, the 16,000 acres that would be protected far surpasses the current 4,000 acres of State Forest set aside from logging.
(Scenic areas like these, along the Low Gap Trail in Morgan-Monroe State Forest, are likely to be protected if HB1447 is successfully signed into law. Photo by: Evan Robbins)
During the O’Bannon and Kernan administrations, about 40% of the State Forests (60,000 acres) were protected from logging which included a system of “Old Forests”, but the administrative decisions that conferred this protection have been continuously rolled back by the Daniels, Pence and Holcomb administrations since 2005. If we put this requirement into law now, no future governor can undo it without a new law from the General Assembly, meaning we can protect these tracts of forests for generations to come.
Governor Braun himself drafted this exact legislation in 2014 when he was a State Representative.
The Chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Rep. Shane Lindauer (R-Jasper), told IFA Director of Legislative Affairs Evan Robbins he would give this bill a hearing in committee as long as the DNR is not opposed. Newly-appointed DNR Director Alan Morrison told Robbins that he would not take any action on Forestry and public lands matters without consulting Governor Braun.
Governor Braun has pushed for the 10% set aside of state forest land and is sympathetic to the needs of rural counties with DNR lands, making this the best opportunity we have had in decades to pass good State Forest legislation.
Please use this link to contact your State Representative and urge them to do everything they can to support HB 1245 and HB1447, including asking Chair Rep. Lindauer to give HB 1447 a hearing.
If your State Representative is author Rep. Dave Hall or any of the co-authors listed, please thank them for their work on these bills and for taking a strong stand in favor of Indiana’s forests and public lands.
Senate Bill (SB) 321 authored by Sen. Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington) and co-authored by Sen. Eric Bassler (R-Washington), would establish the 13 State Wild Areas in the state forests. These Wild Areas were identified and delineated on maps in 2014 by IFA. SB 321 would manage them for wilderness recreation (including hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, mountain biking and hunting) and protection of natural habitats instead of logging, road-building and other destructive management activities.
(L-R: Cataract State Wild Area (SWA) in Owen-Putnam State Forest, Hellbender SWA in Harrison-Crawford State Forest and Spurgeon Hollow SWA in Jackson-Washington State Forest are three of the 13 State Wild Areas which would be protected with the passage of SB 321. Photos by: IFA Staff)
The wild areas would comprise 36,820 acres, or 23%, of Indiana’s 160,000 acres of state forest. With names like “Scarce O’ Fat” and “Hellbender,” the 13 areas are the most distinctive and intact areas of wild, older forest in the state forest system. They will provide places for primitive recreation in wild nature that isn’t possible in a state nature preserve (off-limits to most recreation) or at state parks (heavily developed with roads, buildings, etc.).
Please use this link to contact your State Senator and urge them to support SB321 and ask Senate Natural Resources Chair Sen. Sue Glick (R-LaGrange) to give this bill a hearing.
If your State Senator is Yoder or Bassler, please thank them for their work on this bill which will establish a significant system of wilderness reserves in the state forests which should provide such areas for the restoration of the natural forest ecosystem and enjoyment of current and future generations of Hoosiers.
IFA and other groups within the Indiana Conservation Alliance had also been pushing for the reintroduction of the Indiana Outdoor Stewardship Act, from 2019 which would dedicate sales tax revenue generated by the sale of outdoor equipment and sporting goods — i.e. camping equipment, hunting and fishing equipment, hiking equipment, bicycling equipment — to state land acquisition and wildlife conservation programs.
Due to state budget constraints, this legislation was not introduced this session. However, IFA is continuing to engage with legislators and seek alternative means (such as Budget Committee and/or floor amendments) to pass a sales tax carveout for public land acquisition funding into law, as states such as Texas and Georgia have done.