Because its construction would result in the loss of a state nature preserve, the Central Indiana Land Trust opposes the damming of the White River for the proposed Mounds Lake project near Anderson.
To date, designation as a state nature preserve in Indiana has carried with it the promise that land is protected forever. The Mounds Fen Nature Preserve received that designation in 1980, due to its unique ecosystem, clean water and high biodiversity. If the proposed reservoir is built, the state not only would lose an irreplaceable piece of its natural heritage, but it also would lose the promise inherent in its nature preserve designation, the first such threat to protected land since the state’s nature preserve act was passed in 1967.
The Central Indiana Land Trust also has other concerns with the project – its potential impact on downstream water quality, for example, and elevated flood danger to several nature preserves the land trust owns, and to our neighbors, downstream of the proposed dam – but its primary objection is the broader impact the project would have: If built, it would set a regrettable precedent for the destruction of a natural area and a state nature preserve.
Jen Schmits Thomas
Media Relations