By KEVIN NEVERS

Beginning next winter, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (INDU) will furlough for three months the farmer who operates Chellberg Farm.

Unknown at this time is what INDU will do with the animals at Chellberg.

Bruce Rowe, supervisor of interpretation at INDU, told the Chesterton Tribune that the furlough is one of the many changes affecting the Division of Interpretation in the wake of an audit of park operations ordered by the U.S. Department of Interior and conducted by a contractor. Two other national parks were selected to be audited as well.

The audit consisted of two phases: “a review of all the work everyone in the park does,” Rowe said, then a study of “how to organize the work more efficiently.”

One of results of the audit—not in any way connected with the revision of Director’s Order No. 21—is the furlough of the farmer, “most likely” from December through February, with his return in March in time for the Maple Sugar Festival.

At this point, Rowe said, “there’s no final answer yet” to the fate of the animals at Chellberg. One option would be to sell all the animals and purchase new ones every year, although “we’re trying to figure out ways not to do that.”

There is some limited winter programming at Chellberg in which animals play a role, Rowe noted, while the Environmental Learning Center also puts the farm and its animals to use throughout the year.

“We may use other staff to care for the animals, or we may not get rid of all the animals,” he said.

The Friends of the Dunes, meanwhile, is ready to step into the breach. “We are willing and probably will pay for most of the food for the animals,” said Don Mohar, chair of the Friends Board of Directors.

Mohar added that it is probably impractical every year to sell all of the animals—in particular the two work horses—then buy new ones.

Vendors

In one other move having nothing to do with Director’s Order No. 21, all vendors who do not have fundraising agreements with INDU—as the Friends of the Dunes does—may have to begin paying a $50 fee to obtain a special use permit or a commercial use authorization if they wish to work a festival or other event at the park.

In the past, Rowe said, former Superintendent Dale Engquist simply issued the not-for-profit vendors a special use permit and waived the $50 fee.

Mohar fears that enforcement of the fee is likely to reduce the variety of the items on sale at festivals and events, since the smaller ones—the demonstrators, for instance, who may sell a few of their crafted wares—may not even generate $50 in revenues. “They can’t afford to pay $50 if they’re only going to take in $20 or $30,” he said. “It’s going to diminish the offerings of the event.”

In the past the Friends used to sell vendors’ items at its own booth and would take a 10 percent cut of the net proceeds, Mohar added. That 10 percent would then go directly to an INDU account for its own programming.

Posted 3/15/2007