[BCNnet] FW: "You won" Highland Great Blue Heron Rookery

[Carolyn A. Marsh]

August 11, 2007

 

Dear friends,

 

Yesterday, there could not have been a better day for me to receive good
news. It came from Connie Wachala, of Highland, one of the leaders
campaigning to save the Highland Great Blue Heron Rookery. 

 

Town Manager, Richard Underkofler, informed Connie when she attended a town
meeting on an unrelated matter that, "You won". He then gave her a copy of
the Master Plan, with the appropriate section highlighted. As the Sand Ridge
Audubon Society requested, the town yanked the Indiana Lake Michigan Coastal
grant and will change the scope of the work to plan for a Nature Area in the
vicinity of the Great Blue Heron Rookery to protect the habitat. The town
will assume a lead role in seeking cooperation of federal and state agencies
to allow for the protection and controlled public access to the Highland
rookery area.

 

After she emailed the wonderful news, we talked on the telephone and
discussed a press release that we will be sent Monday. The Sand Ridge
Audubon Society and Connie Wachala wish to thank all citizens who called,
wrote letters and attended public meetings to ask town officials to protect
the herons and their environs.  We will continue to watchdog the town's
project.

 

Carolyn Marsh, Project Leader

Sand Ridge Audubon Society

 

Background information.

 

 Date posted online: Monday, March 19, 2007
Highland needs to protect heron rookery 
Guest Commentary


 


 

In June 2006, the Sand Ridge Audubon Society notified the Highland Town
Council of the great blue heron rookery next to the Little Calumet River.
When the council president described the rookery as a "diamond in the
rough," conservationists were ready to work with officials to produce an
ecological master plan for the river. The damage done by the Army Corps
levee project creates many problems for the community that needs immediate
attention.  

Instead, officials voted against public input and proceeded with an earlier
idea that is now inconsistent with conservation objectives. They obtained
engineering services and a federal grant for an "island retreat" on a wooded
island in the river near Kennedy Avenue. The plan is for a bridge,
observation tower and boardwalks connecting to Hammond. 

Sand Ridge Audubon Society informed officials that many of the 110 pairs of
nesting great blues use the island to roost and feed. Also, that the state
endangered great egret and the critical-listed black-crowned night heron
(nesting on the Lake Michigan shoreline) use the island.

Federal and state governments have defaulted on their responsibilities to
safeguard the rookery. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources issued a
statement that the island is far enough from the nests and will not disturb
them.

However, when comparing the Highland rookery, a 95-acre wetland, to two
other rookeries, the facts prove the riverfront and nearby island should be
included in the heron's nesting territory and left undeveloped.  

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore rookery, along the Little Calumet River
in Porter County, is included in more than 600 acres and is managed by the
National Park Service. There is no public access during the breeding season
from March to August.

The Lake Renwick rookery, an Illinois nature preserve, in Plainfield, Ill.,
is in a 700-acre complex managed by the Illinois DNR and Forest Preserve
District of Will County. It is also closed to the public during the breeding
season, except for guided tours limited to a few hours twice a week. Also,
shoreline fishing is restricted and there are no boats or canoes allowed
anywhere at any time in the complex.

The park department and redevelopment commission together will spend $55,000
to match another $55,000 of federal money [Indiana Lake Michigan Coastal
grant] on just the planning, not construction, of new facilities. The town
will be diverting resources from more important endeavors, especially in the
wake of Highland's devastating flood.

In an attempt to hook public support for the $110,000 grant, the town
included an inventory of wildlife. But, an inventory had been done before by
the Indiana DNR and Audubon provided bird statistics in 2006. Since many
Audubon members are experts on plants and animals, we have offered our
services to the town.

Sand Ridge Audubon Society maintains the Highland Town Council should stop
wasting money and time and act now to protect the rookery as a quality of
life issue. We believe that the public supports this goal and we will work
together to accomplish it.

Carolyn Marsh is project leader and Carol Strand and Paul Strand are members
of the Sand Ridge Audubon Society. The opinion expressed in this column is
the writer's and not necessarily that of The Times.

 

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