Natural Resources
Conservation
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2007 Perspective on the Past & Future of the Conservation Reserve Program
4-page publication offering a perspective on the Conservation Reserve program, including administrative issues that must be resolved for the 2007 Farm Bill....
A Landowner's Guide to Sustainable Forestry: Part 4: Conserving Nature
A forest is more than just trees. It's a collection of hundreds or thousands of living things interacting with each other. This publication provides information on managing wildlife habitats, endangered species, the rol...
Adoption of Agricultural Conservation Practices: Insights from Research and Practice
Because agriculture dominates the Midwestern landscape, it has a huge impact on environmental quality. Agricultural producers are often advised to adopt practices that help to reduce the impact of agriculture on the e...
Appreciating Reptiles and Amphibians in Nature
This 20-page publication will help amateur herpetologists and nature enthusiasts better enjoy the diversity of the amphibians and reptiles that call Indiana home, in a manner that maintains them for future generations. T...
Assessing Your Land's Potential for Wildlife
Many landowners would like to make their land area more attractive for wildlife, but do not know where to start. This paper outlines the basic decision-making process landowners must go through prior to initiating manage...
Bovine Tuberculosis in Wild White-tailed Deer
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a bacterial disease of mammals resulting from the infection of Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis). It is a zoonotic disease that can infect humans, domestic stock, and wild animals. Outbreaks ...
Conservation and Management of Butternut Trees
This 10-page PDF publication describes how butternuts, native hardwood trees related to black walnuts, are threatened by butternut canker disease and have been listed as a species of special concern by the federal govern...
Conservation Tillage and Water Quality
This publication discusses conservation tillage, the impact of agriculture on water quality, and the impact of conservation tillage on surface and ground water quality. Tables are included listing the effects of surfac...
Construction and Trees: Guidelines for Protection
This publication provides information on protecting trees within or near construction sites and home building projects from damage or death.
Urban Forestry, Department of Forestry & Natural Resources
...Control of Canada Thistle in CRP and Other Noncrop Acreage
This publication helps land managers effectively deal with Canada thistle problems in conservation plantings....
Corn Yield Response to Drainage Water Recycling Using Subirrigation
Drainage water recycling is a practice of capturing and storing agricultural surface and subsurface drainage water in a reservoir, and then reusing that water as supplemental irrigation. This innovative approach to drain...
Designing Hardwood Tree Plantings for Wildlife
This publication focuses on planting hardwood trees that are valuable to wildlife. The publication covers the variety, size and location of trees and shrubs to plant. Also included is a chart with selected tree and shrub...
Forest Management for Reptiles and Amphibians: A Technical Guide for the Midwest
This 24-page publication describes the response of amphibians and reptiles to a variety of forest management practices in the Midwest, and offers general management strategies to minimize negative effects of harvests on ...
Help the Hellbender, North America's Giant Salamander
The eastern hellbender is the largest salamander in North America, found in and around rivers and streams in 17 states from New York to Missouri. Many hellbender populations are in decline within their geographic range. ...
How Anglers and Paddlers Can Help the Hellbender
The eastern hellbender is an endangered salamander found in the Blue River in southern Indiana. Hellbenders live their entire lives in rivers and streams and are rarely encountered by people. Anglers and paddlers are the...
Zoos work at the forefront of species conservation efforts worldwide. For example, the Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) is a giant, fully aquatic salamander that has experienced range-wide declines throughout...
Identification of Butternuts and Butternut Hybrids
This 11-page PDF publication describes how butternuts, native hardwood trees related to black walnuts, are often hard for landowners to identify, because they are rare and people often are not familiar with them. In addi...
Importance of Hardwood Tree Planting
The Importance of Hardwood Tree Plantings publication provides a brief overview of several key societal and environmental attributes that hardwood plantations provide, for example, timber production, wildlife habitat, fo...
Improving Water Quality Around Your Farm
The eastern hellbender is an endangered salamander found in the Blue River in southern Indiana. It requires cool, clean rivers and streams with high water quality in order to thrive. Some farming practices can lead to so...
Improving Water Quality At Your Livestock Operation
The eastern hellbender is an endangered salamander found in the Blue River in southern Indiana. It requires cool, clean rivers and streams with high water quality in order to thrive. Livestock operations can lead to incr...
Indian Creek Watershed Project: Key Takeaways for Success
The Indian Creek watershed project focused on improving water quality in a small agricultural watershed in central Illinois. The project encouraged local landowners to voluntarily adopt conservation practices and systems...
Indiana Farmland Provides Rest and Forage for Arctic Travelers
Shorebirds, those little brown birds normally associated with ocean shorelines, make an appearance twice a year along seasonally flooded agricultural fields in Indiana. The birds are making their way in the spring to bre...
Indiana Soils: Evaluation for Agriculture and Home Sites
This publication is the guide used to teach soils and land use in high schools and to conduct soil judging contests.
F...
Scientists and natural resource managers depend on sound scientific research-based information on which to make future management decisions that will "manage our forest for sustainable wildlife and manage our wildlife...
This publication presents research that shows how plant height uniformity influences yield in continuous corn using conservation tillage systems. This publication discusses some real causes of yield loss in no-till corn...
Promote Conservation Through an Effective Campaign
Using two previously developed campaigns as examples, this publication walks you through four steps to help you create an effective campaign to change people's behavior. One campaign takes a comprehensiv...
Protecting Prime Farmland in Indiana
This publication seeks to answer the following questions: What is prime farmland? How is it determined? How much has already been lost, and how much do we have left? What are the consequences of continued loss locally...
Soil Erosion in Indiana An Overview
Soil erosion on agricultural land is a significant problem in Indiana. Not only is yield decreased, but sediment (the end product of erosion) is a major source of water pollution. This publication discusses the erosion...
Soundscape Recorder (Android App)
Soundscape ecology is a new field of research that investigates how sound in the environment can be used to assess ecosystem health and human connection to nature and the environment in general. With this app, you can...
Soundscape ecology is a new field of research that investigates how sound in the environment can be used to assess ecosystem health and human connection to nature and the environment in general. With this app, you can...
Status of Reforested Mine Sites in S.W. Indiana
Current Indiana coal mine reclamation regulations require the maintenance of at least 450 living trees and shrubs per acre, as determined in the last year of a five-year responsibility period. This publication discusses ...
Tax Treatment of Conservation Easements
This publication discusses tax aspects of conservation easements from the standpoint of a forest landowner, the person selling or donating an easement. It is intended to provide you with a basic introduction to these ...
Terracing as a 'Best Management Practice' for Controlling Erosion and Protecting Water Quality
This publication seeks to answer the commonly asked questions about terraces, including "What are the different types?," "How do they work?," "Where are they most effective (or ineffective)?," "What does it take to con...
The Basics of Managing Wildlife on Agricultural Lands
This publication includes extensive information about improving grassed waterways, buffer strips, and wetlands for wildlife, food plots, habitat maintenance and more. It also provides information on who to contact for as...
The Scientific Process of Conservation Biology: Analyze, Design, Debate
Conservation biology is considered by some to be a "crisis discipline." Decisions within the field must often be made quickly, sometimes without enough time to gather all of the data one would ideally have, and they c...
Tools to Inform and Transform Drainage
This 11-page publication describes eight tools that support decision-making for subsurface drainage systems. All tools presented are available at no cost and without creating an account. This publication is part of a ser...
Transforming Drainage: Potential Benefits of Drainage Water Recycling - a case study from Indiana
This publication, part of the Transforming Drainage series, shows how drainage water recycling can improve water quality and crop production. A 10-foot-deep reservoir representing 6% of an Indiana field area met irrigati...
Water Conservation in the Home
Oftentimes we overlook ways to conserve water in and around the home; however, it is important to try to conserve water as much as possible. This publication provides practical water-saving techniques for the home, and r...
This publication explains how trees can be injured and die from damage suffered during construction projects.
Urban Forestry, Department of Forestry & Natural Resources
...Wind Erosion Concerns in Indiana
This publication contains information on soil types by counties in Indiana, a map of Indiana graphically demonstrating soil parent materials of the 13 regions and considerable discussion on conditions that influence wind...