Healthy Rivers program buys 650 more acres

INDIANAPOLIS - Indiana's push to conserve land along some of the state's waterways has added 650 more acres to a program that permanently safeguards riverside lands from development.

The state Department of Natural Resources says the Healthy Rivers INitiative recently purchased 380 acres in Vigo County's Wabash River Conservation Area and another 287 acres along the Muscatatuck River in the Austin Bottoms Conservation Area.

Since Healthy Rivers was launched in 2010, that initiative has purchased nearly 12,500 acres and permanently protected nearly 32,000 acres through newly acquired land, previous DNR ownership or federal Wetland Reserve conservation programs.

DNR Fish & Wildlife director Mark Reiter says the new acquisitions move the program closer to its goal of protecting 70,000 acres of riverside corridors along the Wabash River, Sugar Creek and the Muscatatuck River.