About Indiana State Parks and Nature Preserves

State Parks

  • There is an Indiana State Park within an hour of every Hoosier.
  • Division of State Parks manages 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.
  • State Parks staff oversee and care for more than 3,100 buildings and structures, 700 miles of trails, more than 600 inn rooms and 7,700 campsites, plus the supporting infrastructure.
  • The Division supplements operations with more than 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 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.