50th Headline

 

Yellow Lady slippers at Ivanhoe - Ron Leonetti

Milestones in Numbers -
Acres Protected

1974 - more than 1,500 acres protected

1977 - 3,600+ acres

1984 - 8,100+ acres

1992 - 20,000+ protected

1994 - over 24,000 protected

1997 - 35,000+ acres

2000 - 40,000+ acres protected

2003 - more than 43,000 acres

2004 - 46,000+ protected

2005 - almost 11,000 acres added from last year - 57,000+

2006 - 60,000+ acres

2008 - over 64,000 acres protected

2009 (so far) - 66,000+ acres

 

Return to the 50th Anniversary page

Sugar Creek - Christopher Jordan

The Nature Conservancy's Indiana Chapter has accomplished a lot over the past 50 years. Retrace some of our highlights from the very beginning til today.

Indiana Chapter Milestones Over the Past 50 Years

1959 - 37 Charter members are organized as The Nature Conservancy's Indiana Chapter.

1960 - First acquisition is made - Pine Hills Nature Preserve in Montgomery County.

1974 - Chapter hires its first paid employee.

1984 - Protection work begins at Ivanhoe Dune & Swale in Lake County.

1990 - Almost 1,200 acres are protected at Hardin Ridge in Floyd County.

1994 - Chapter purchases over 1,400 acres at the confluence of the Ohio and Wabash Rivers; the Blue River Project Office in Corydon and the Southern Lake Michigan Rim Office in Whiting are opened.

1996 - Kankakee Sands - a 7,200 acre tract in Newton County - is purchased for prairie and wetland restoration.

1997 - The Kankakee Sands Project Office is opened in Morocco.

1998 - Over a thousand acres are acquired at Coffee Bayou and Saunders Woods in Gibson County.

2000 - Chapter makes several acquisitions at Green's Bluff in Owen County.

2001 - The Tippecanoe River Project Office opens in Winamac.

2002 - Over 200 acres of critical cave habitat is added to The Lost River system in Orange County; the endangered Karner Blue butterfly reintroduction program begins at Ivanhoe.

2003 - The Brown County Hills Project Office is opened in Nashville.

2004 - Indiana Chapter announces conservation goal of 100,000 acres protected by 2016.

2005 - Additional 145 acres are protected at Hoosier Prairie in Lake County.

2006 - Houghton Lake, an intact natural lake in Marshall County, is protected.

2007 - Almost 1,300 acres are protected along Sugar Creek.

2008 - Over 316 acres are protected at Cave River Valley in Washington County, a important habitat for the endangered Indiana bat; Tippecanoe River Project Office changes its name to the Wabash Rivers Initiative - Tippecanoe Office to better reflect our emphasis our commitment to this very important, biologically-diverse river.

2009 - 46 full-time employees on staff; Indiana Chapter breaks ground on new "green" state headquarters.

 

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Christopher Jordan (Sugar Creek); Photo © Ron Leonetti (Yellow Lady slippers at Ivanhoe).