Leaders from The Nature Conservancy’s Indiana chapter detailed a broad strategy to restore and protect Indiana’s natural systems — from forests and wetlands to working farmland and rivers — during the organization’s seventh annual Exploring Indiana webinar.
Brian Dickinson, donor relations manager, opened the virtual event by welcoming participants and introducing Midwest Division Director Michael Reuter.
Reuter emphasized that the organization is positioned to meet growing environmental challenges.
“We’re living in probably the most dynamic and challenging times that TNC has ever faced,” Reuter said. “And yet I believe that the collaborative and science-based organization that has been built at TNC was built in a way for this particular moment, and this is our moment.”
In 2025, TNC worked with state agencies, local communities and Indigenous nations to improve management on 2.5 million acres in the Great Lakes region. Reuter noted that the Midwest division also led the organization in dam removal efforts, reconnecting more than 2,500 river miles for fish and other river wildlife, most of those miles in Indiana.
Indiana’s conservation work also plays a global role, particularly in agriculture.
“Indiana and the Midwest played just a pivotal role in establishing this work at TNC, which is now advancing regenerative agricultural practices from the U.S. to Canada, to Brazil, to India, and more,” Reuter said.
Indiana State Director Cassie Hauswald reflected on her 25-year career with TNC and the organization’s biodiversity focus.
“That’s something I love about this organization,” Hauswald said. “That’s our North Star, always, is how to promote biodiversity. And the how is really the fun part.”
Hauswald said conservation efforts are increasingly focused on landscape-scale connections that allow species to move and adapt to climate change.
“How do we connect the Great Lakes to the Ohio River through the Wabash River system and help species to move?” Hauswald said. “Wildlife corridors is something that I’m really excited about as we’re starting to think about how to move animals through landscapes of working lands, which the Midwest is.”
Jane Stautz, chair of the Indiana Board of Trustees, highlighted legislative and land protection achievements from the past year.
“TNC is rooted in partnership, science, and community,” Stautz said.
Among the milestones was passage of a new state law expanding prescribed fire capacity and making it easier for private landowners to use prescribed burns to improve habitat. The organization also expanded the Indiana Regenerative Agriculture Demonstration Network and continued floodplain restoration partnerships along the lower Wabash River.
Land protection efforts included an 83-acre expansion of Greens Bluff Nature Preserve in Owen County and a 265-acre addition to Douglas Woods Nature Preserve in Steuben County.
Nathan Herbert, land manager for northeast Indiana preserves, detailed restoration work underway at Douglas Woods, which protects portions of Fish Creek, one of the most biologically diverse streams in the Great Lakes Basin.
“The Copperbelly water snake is sort of the inspiration,” Herbert said. “Its ecology directs our management strategy for the land up here.”
Herbert explained that the snake requires interconnected forests and wetlands, guiding restoration efforts.
“As we put forest back on the ground up here, as we build more wetlands and we build things out to interconnect things, we’re providing for the ecology of this snake, but pretty much everything else that’s native to this part of the state as well,” Herbert said.
The newly acquired acreage includes stream corridor, upland forest and former agricultural land that will undergo reforestation and hydrology restoration over the next several years.
Melissa Moran, director of community programs, outlined visitor improvements planned at Douglas Woods South, one of seven flagship preserves in Indiana.
“At the flagship preserves, we want to make these improvements so that visitors will feel more welcome as they approach our sites,” Moran said.
Planned upgrades include a new parking area, accessible trail segments and wetland viewing platforms. Construction is expected to begin this spring, with completion anticipated later this year.
Moran said the improvements are designed to balance conservation with public access.
“We want people to experience these special places, but we also want to make sure we’re protecting the ecological integrity of the site,” Moran said.
Throughout the webinar, speakers emphasized that collaboration remains central to the organization’s strategy, from partnerships with farmers adopting regenerative practices to coordination with state agencies and local communities on habitat restoration.
Reuter closed by reiterating the urgency and opportunity of the moment.
“This is our moment,” Reuter said. “We have the science. We have the partnerships. And we have the commitment to make a difference.”
For more information visit nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/indiana/.
Contact Health & Environmental Reporter Hanna Rauworth at 317-762-7854 or follow her on Instagram at @hanna.rauworth.
Hanna Rauworth is the Health & Environmental Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, where she covers topics at the intersection of public health, environmental issues, and community impact. With a commitment to storytelling that informs and empowers, she strives to highlight the challenges and solutions shaping the well-being of Indianapolis residents.
