STATE SPENDING

In 2007, 1.4% of the State of Indiana’s total expenditures and General Fund expenditures were for Conservation and Environment. In 2019 only 0.8% of total expenditures and 0.6% of General Fund expenditures will be for Conservation and Environment. In the 2019-21 budget, the share of total expenditures will continue to drop to 0.8%. (Source: Indiana State Budget Agency website)
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was required to revert over $100 million from legislative approved budgets for the fiscal years 2008-2013. (Source: ISBA website)
The biennium budget approved in 2007-09 included $36.3 million for state parks construction and preventive maintenance. The 2019-21 budget includes only $23.9 million.
The 2019-21 state budget also includes $150 million for “deferred maintenance needs at state agency owned facilities.” (Source: ISBA website) If significant portion is approved for DNR, this would decrease backlog.
DNR was required to revert approximately 3% of its legislative approved operating budget for the 2018 fiscal year, and is being required to revert 4% of the legislative approved budget for fiscal year 2019.

ABOUT INDIANA STATE PARKS

There is an Indiana State Park within an hour of every Hoosier.
Division of State Parks has 36 properties, 7 state park inns and 170,000 acres of land and water.
The number of properties the Division manages has increased from 27 to 36 since 1988, while the number of full-time staff has increased from 385 to 407 positions.
State Parks staff oversee and care for more than 2,273 buildings and structures, 807 miles of trails, 631 inn rooms and 8,098 campsites, plus the supporting infrastructure.
The Division supplements operations with 18 part-time positions and approximately 1,100 temporary positions during the spring, summer and fall.
More than 180 state and federally listed threatened and endangered species are found in Indiana State Parks.
Approximately 91% of Indiana State Parks’ operating costs are generated by user fees. Only 9% comes from the State’s General Fund through taxes.
Indiana’s state parks host approximately 15-16 million visits annually by Hoosiers and guests from other states and countries.
State Park revenue for entrance and camping fees in 2018 included $5.4 million from out-of-state visitors.
Indiana Parks Alliance estimates that the deferred maintenance needs in state parks exceeds $100 million.

ABOUT INDIANA STATE-OWNED NATURE PRESERVES

Nature Preserves are the most widely distributed system of protected lands in Indiana, with preserves in 70 of Indiana’s 92 counties.
Of the 213 state endangered plants, 182 are found on these nature preserves.
Of Indiana’s 288 nature preserves, 38 of them are located within state parks, and 71 are directly managed by the Division of Nature Preserves ecologists.
Division of Nature Preserves owned and managed properties have increased from 17 in 1988 to 71 today.
Trails and parking lots afford visitors a chance to experience prairies, old-growth forests, cypress swamps, cedar glades and various types of wetlands.
Forty-four of the 71 properties directly managed by the Division have no parking lots or trails, and are thus inaccessible by the public.
There are 8 regional ecologists who care for this widely spread system of nature preserves.
In 2018, the Regional Ecologists conducted invasive species control and prescribed burns on 5,000 acres.