BY TERESA AUCH SCHULTZ, Post-Tribune staff writer
On top of helping the local economy, the recent stimulus package proposed by Congress could bring hundreds of millions of dollars to help improve Northwest Indiana's environment.
Part of the proposed $825 billion stimulus package includes $2 billion for national parks.
Of that, $1 million is slated for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Patty Rooney, public affairs specialist for the U.S. National Parks Department, said.
The money would go toward projects to get rid of invasive plant species that are not native to the park, Rooney said, along with clearing trees to create more space at Cressmoor Prairie and adding room to the habitat of the endangered Karner blue butterflies.
"This is great for us," Rooney said. "We'd love to see any additional funding that would come our way."
Thomas Anderson, executive director of Save the Dunes Foundation, praised the possible funding, saying that many of the native plants in the park need help because they are on the decline.
"Invasive species and habitat management really is a need that's underfunded," he said.
The package also contains $144 million for Indiana to improve water infrastructures connected to Lake Michigan, according to the Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition. The money would create almost 5,000 jobs, according to the group.
Anderson said that while he was excited about the help the national park would get, he was also happy because the proposed package includes projects by Save the Dunes.
Those include getting rid of the pipe that holds about the last mile of the lower end of Dunes Creek and letting it flow naturally.
The project, called "daylighting" because it brings the creek back to daylight, could help to end flooding problems by the Indiana Dunes State Park because the pipe can become clogged by heavy storm water, as it did last summer, Anderson said.
The group has also proposed to build several rain gardens at local schools, which help control storm water with plants.
Rooney said Congress still has to approve the package and that projects could be cut, which means any or all of the local projects might not received funding in the end. Anderson, though, said he was happy that Congress was even considering funding all of the projects.