TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION

Peter J. Wilkin, Biological Sciences and Chemistry Section, Purdue University North Central, Westville, IN 46391-9542

ABSTRACT
Porter county in northwest Indiana is threatened by sprawl.  The area has high biodiversity..2..3 due to its proximity to Lake Michigan, but it is also the site of industrial activity, high human population density, endless through traffic, and rapid growth.  Only a few % of the land area is protected, mostly adjacent to the Lake.  At Indiana's dunes biologists are restoring..2 dune, wetland, woodland & prairie.  One hoped for outcome is fewer beach closings due to high levels of E. coli.  A tool developed by the Indiana Biodiversity Initiative is used to identify the most valuable areas in the county for conservation.  In 2002 a Land Use Plan was adopted by the county to guide growth.  Changes in zoning ordinances needed to retain both the urban & rural character are described and compared with recent developments.   Also, the progress is assessed of conservation & restoration activities at Coffee Creek..2, a model community for more sustainable development , and which uses level spreaders to reduce runoff.  Tools developed at Purdue to model the impacts of land use change on water resources are used to determine the effects of a new mall in Valparaiso.  For access to the links, and for more tools: http://faculty.pnc.edu/pwilkin/environmentalscience.html 

INTRODUCTION
Between 1990 & 2000 Indiana's Population increased by about 10%, but Porter County, figure 1, grew at a much higher rate.  This is partly because it is within commuting distance of Chicago, and partly because it has not yet been ruined by sprawl.  The county is the site of industrial activity including two steel mills, and endless through traffic funneled south by Lake Michigan, and sucked north by Chicago.  However, Porter county's proximity to the Lake, and the residues of retreating glaciers - the Lake Border, Tinley and Valparaiso moraines - have led to the development of a variety of ecosystems: dune, wetland, swamp, bog, lake, prairie, oak savanna, and various kinds of woods.  Through field work in this region Henry Cowles developed the concept of ecological succession.  Figure 2, shows land cover in northwest Porter county (NOTE the fragmentation). The figure is from the Indiana Biodiversity Initiative's CD (see below) of the Northwest Moraine Natural Region.  The large red area next to the Lake is industrial & the Port of Indiana; but there is also much scenic land in need of protection.

BIODIVERSITY
The many ecosystems have provided the area with high biodiversity.  A twenty four hour Bioblitz conducted by the Field Museum of Chicago, at sites in Illinois but bordering Lake county IN, found over 2000 species of eukaryotic organisms..2..3.  Only a few % of Porter county is protected from development, mostly in national and state parks adjacent or close to the Lake: figure 3.  This map does not show all of the protected areas, a few more are mapped under A Model Development, below.  Federal and state environmental scientists are restoring..2 dunes (replacing houses with native plantings), wetlands (blocking drainage ditches), woodlands (controlled understory burns), and oak savanna/prairie (removing shrubs & trees, & burns).  A hoped for outcome of some of this activity is fewer beach closings due to high levels of E. coli, because more surface water will enter the soil.  But some of the E. coli problem is due to combined sewer overflows (Save the Dunes Council, Fall 2004 Newsletter).  Beach closings based on high numbers of E. coli are a day late, and cause unnecessary $ losses (Don Coursey), so closings are made following a storm, before data are available.  Please ask your US senators to support Bill 1398, which provides funding for Great Lakes coastal restoration efforts.

A tool developed by the Indiana Biodiversity Initiative identifies in 1 km squares a conservation map, figure 4, for the NW IN Moraine Region which is most of Lake, the northern 3/4 of Porter, & the northern 1/3 of Laporte counties.  The map results from plant and animal analyses – sites protecting high-quality plant communities and rare plants, and sites selected by umbrella animals: badger, Blanding’s turtle, blue-spotted salamander, golden-winged warbler, Karner blue butterfly, massasauga, red-shouldered hawk, scarlet tanager.  The Valparaiso moraine is a haven for endangered, threatened and rare species (see A Model Development, below).  These squares, plus river & stream corridors shown in figures 1 & 2, are the areas most in need of protection & conservation.  There are no squares on the Kankakee river (a ditch in Indiana), but only because it is not in this region.  The Valparaiso moraine spreads out from NE to SW.  Most 1 km squares in Lake county have already been lost to development.  The next step is to use figure 4 to identify areas to add to those already protected.  The Indiana DNR has included the moraine parts of Porter and Laporte counties in its Forest Legacy Program, and so it is working on this issue.  But, this work will not protect the majority of the county from sprawl. 

LAND USE PLAN
In 2002 the Porter County Land Use Plan was adopted to guide growth.  The Plan was developed by experts, with input from all interested persons.  The guiding principle for the Plan's development was to preserve both the urban & rural character of the county - to prevent the county from being converted into a massive subdivision, as has happened elsewhere, including much of the adjacent Lake county.  The plan includes recommendations for changes in zoning ordinances needed to accomplish the preservation.  Both zoning and subdivision ordinances need to be rewritten.  The Plan has many suggestions but includes: 1) that Planned Unit Developments reserve at least 30% of their land for non-residential uses like commercial, institutional or recreation (see A Model Development below), 2) add screening and buffering requirements for non-compatible uses, 3) all new subdivisions increase housing density, 4) subdivisions cluster houses and retain 50% open space, & 5) preserve farmland.  Most developments since the Plan was adopted have not followed the Plan's recommendations, so the appearance of the county continues to deteriorate.  On 9/8/04 Porter county apparently adopted a 10 - 20% (only!) open space requirement in new subdivisions.  But developers are resisting that even this inadequate protection becomes law.
Plan commission votes for green space tonight 10/13/2004.  From Plan Commission Minutes: Mr. Thompson stated we had agricultural representatives on it. He stated John Remster and Jane Maxwell represented the agricultural side. He stated they told me to put on builders and developers and Todd Leeth and Gary Greene were on this. He stated the citizen member was Ned Kovacevich. He stated I also pulled in another developer, Gary Atkinson that did a PUD within the county. He stated I had Parks people as requested. He stated I had Ed Melendez with the Parks Department and also Dick Maxey who is a Park Board member. He stated from the Plan Commission there were Mike Bucko and Eric Biddinger. He stated I also had Lorelei Weimer who is the Director of the Porter County Tourism. He stated from the environmental side I had Herb Read and there was also Greg Quartucci, who is a consultant in the environmental side and he is currently working on Congressman Visclosky’s Market Greenway.  Motion carried on the following ballot vote:  Biddinger - Yes Bucko - No Burns - Yes Detert - Yes Harper - Yes Mahnic - No Poparad - No Sheetz - No Breitzke - Yes

CONSERVATION THRESHOLDS
There is much scientific evidence for the open space requirements to preserve biodiversity.  The Ecological Society of America published a comprehensive Ecological Principles for Managing Land Use.  This document includes eight Ecological Guidelines For Land Use, that are shown in figure 5 as incorporated into the Environmental Law Institute's assessment of many quantitative ecological studies of how changing land use affects biodiversity: Conservation Thresholds for Land-Use Planners.  This publication is a must read, and free at http://www.eli.org/.  The 50% open space requirement is a compromise: some species require more open space & others require less.  Also, the shape and size of the subdivision and land features must be taken into consideration when determining the open space requirements.  Other things being equal, a larger subdivision requires less open space.  If the county follows through with the recommendations in the Land Use Plan, then the $200,000 that the Plan cost is money well spent.  Most of the $100,000 spent on a new open space ordinance could have been saved as model ordinances are free on the Internet at WI DNR & at www.smartgrowth.org.  Wetland ordinances for Indiana are also available.  Ecological simulations, such as RAMAS (on PurdueNC I drive under Scribailo), are often used to guide conservation work.  But in "Is environmental research a waste of time?" Ecol. Man. & Rest. 1 (2), 81-82. 2000, H. Possingham suggests that the long established conservationists' "rules of thumb" are as just as useful (Conservation Software).

EDGE EFFECTS, HABITAT FRAGMENTATION &  CORRIDORS
If a developer includes open space in a new subdivision, but places it in the center, surrounded by roads, buildings and lawns, then because of edge effects and habitat fragmentation/lack of access, the effects upon the open space ecosystem are devastating.  As the reasons for this are well known to conservation biologists, for the purposes of this poster I reproduce another box: figure 6 from the ELI study described above in Conservation Thresholds.  The ELI group has produced many definitive environmental reports, including on the conservation of biodiversity and Prevention Strategies for Invasive Plants in the Great Lakes States.  The Porter Co. Land Use Plan has maps of land cover that are useful to biologists, including an Environmental  Assessment: figure 7, Prime Farmland: figure 8, and Future Land Use: figure 9.  Biologists working in conservation should advise county officials on the design of every new subdivision, to minimize their harm to the environment, and to maximize their value in preserving biodiversity.  Biologists need to be more involved in land use planning.  If the links do not work you can see the maps at the Porter county Land Use Plan.

A MODEL DEVELOPMENT?
Porter county includes two almost adjacent developments close to Chesterton, both by the Lake Erie Land Company.  The more successful is Sand Creek, a gated community with a country club and 27 hole golf course, but very little natural open space.  The second, Coffee Creek, figure 10, was named one of the world's 26 most innovative communities.  It includes both residential and commercial areas which are developing very slowly, and a 167 acre watershed preserve, or 26% of the 640 total acreage, with miles of trails open to the public.  Prairie restoration is taking place in the preserve.  An innovation to reduce pollution due to runoff from hillsides is the use of level spreaders, figure 11, by which storm water is captured in a system of underground tubes and a pond, and filtered through the ground before it enters Coffee Creek.  The slow development of Coffee Creek is partly because the development is tainted by scandals, and because both residential and commercial lots are expensive and small.  The preserve was developed before many lots were sold.  Coffee Creek flows south to north.  The boundaries to the Coffee Creek development are marked by roads, including the very busy Indiana toll road to the south, and busy SR 49 to the west.  From the south wildlife can only safely enter the preserve via Coffee Creek, and from the west there is no safe route.

SOFTWARE TOOLS
There are hundreds of software tools to assist with environmental issues.  Three important sources of tools are: 1) the EPA (for example Databases and Software), 2) tools at Purdue's Center for Technology Transfer and Pollution Prevention including the impacts of land use change on water resources, and 3) the Local Government Environmental Assistance Network.  These tool and many more are available at http://faculty.pnc.edu/pwilkin/environmentalmodels.html.   Purdue offers training in tool use, for example: ABE 526 - Watershed Systems Design, and ASM 336 - Environmental Systems Management.  NatureServe, a Network Connecting Science with Conservation offers

Vista: 
Where can we place new development in order to best protect our environment?
How should we invest scarce public funds to conserve land in order to get the best return on our investment?
How do we plan responsibly for our future by preserving green infrastructure—parks, preserves, and ecological corridors—to complement the more traditional built-infrastructure, such as roads, housing, and utilities?
IN Natural Heritage Data Center:   Indiana has an exceptionally diverse selection of natural habitats. This diversity of natural habitats in turn supports a high species diversity. The Heritage database contains 1827 documented occurrences of 121 federal listed species, 7621 documented occurrences of 568 state listed species, and 1189 documented occurrences of 59 high quality natural communities. The Heritage database also has records for over 700 significant natural areas in the state>>IN DNR Division of Nature Preserves>>There is one STATE nature preserve in Porter co., in Dunes state park

Coastal Program..LaMP: 2004 Status Report..Little Cal. - Galien Watershed.  .Beauty Creek subdivision..
POWER:.Principals of Land Use..Lake/PorterCo..Purdue/CES Land Use.IN Land Resources Council..United Growth Kent Co. MI..
Environmental Restoration..Wetland Restoration Tools   Indiana Population Changes 1990 - 2000