Voice of the People

The Indiana Dunes State Park is one of the most scenic, historic, and ecologically significant natural areas in Indiana. The beach and dunes attract one million visitors a year. At the same time the park supports over 70 native plants and animals, more than any other Indiana state park property, providing habitat for endangered and threatened species such as the Piping Plover and Pitchers Thistle. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is proposing to seek private development of a 3- to 4- story “full-service” inn at the Indiana Dunes State Park. Any new development along or near the beach will negatively affect the park’s significant natural resources and visitor experience. It will also interfere with bird migration and affect bird mortality. This proposed private development provides no benefit to park visitors, or to the people of Indiana to whom this park belongs. It would also compete with private lodging development just a short drive from the park.

The Indiana Dunes State Park must remain a haven from commercial development, not leased out to promote such development. Therefore, the Porter County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America opposes the inn proposal as an unacceptable intrusion into this splendid resource and urges DNR to abandon this proposal. Charlotte Read

Posted 1/27/2006