By Peter Blanchard, Mirror Indy
Mirror Indy is a part of Free Press Indiana, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to ensuring all Hoosiers have access to the news and information they need.
Despite concerns from environmentalists — and support from 23 city-county councilors — Mayor Joe Hogsett is so far declining to allocate funds in the 2025 city budget to acquire urban forests for conservation.
Members of Forests for Indy, a campaign launched by the Indiana Forest Alliance, have been engaged in a monthslong effort to persuade the Hogsett administration to earmark $6 million in the $1.6-billion budget to buy four privately owned urban forests and place them into the city’s parks and greenway system.
“We do not feel that this administration is listening to neighborhoods or acting with the urgency needed,” Indiana Forest Alliance Executive Director Jeff Stant told Mirror Indy.
The group has been in conversations with several property owners who are interested in selling their land for conservation.
In Decatur Township, near the Marion County border with Morgan County, property owner Fred Mills is willing to part ways with a 25-acre parcel of old Hoosier forest that his family purchased nearly 200 years ago — for a price.
Jim Maakestad, who owns a 20-acre parcel in the eastside Arlington Woods neighborhood, is also interested in preserving his wooded area, which is currently zoned for industrial use.
Urban forests, which are defined as a group of trees with a continuous canopy greater than one acre, provide a safe haven for sensitive plants and wildlife, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They also help cities adapt to climate change by cooling the air, reducing flood risk and absorbing carbon dioxide emissions.
About 5% of land in Indianapolis is used for parks and recreation, according to a 2021 study from the Indiana Forest Alliance, well below the national median average of 15% for U.S. cities.
Many attendees watch the City-County Council meeting Aug. 12, 2024, from an overflow room at the City-County Building, due to high attendance in the chamber. One attendee holds a green sign from the Indiana Forest Alliance, whose supporters are unhappy with the proposed funding to acquire urban forests in the 2025 city budget. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy
City lawmakers have been receptive to the group’s demands. In July, the City-County Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Hogsett administration to include funding in the 2025 budget.
Hogsett did not immediately respond to a Mirror Indy request for comment on Aug. 14.
Stant said he was pleased to learn that the Indianapolis Department of Public Works is proposing to allocate $1 million each year to a strategic land acquisition and stewardship fund. The money for that fund comes from the city’s stormwater fee, an annual rate paid by property-owning taxpayers, and can only be used to acquire land for the purposes of mitigating the effects of stormwater and flooding.
In some cases, that can mean acquiring urban forests. This year, the city used $360,000 from that fund to purchase an urban forest just south of Grassy Creek Regional Park on the far east side and place it under the purview of the Indy Parks and Recreation Department.
“Our hope would be, just as we’ve partnered with Indy Parks, we can also work together with the Indiana Forest Alliance to identify parcels they’re interested in that make sense to the Department of Public Works from a stormwater perspective,” DPW Director Brandon Herget said. “The argument I’ve made to councilors and the Indiana Forest Alliance is that this is a path forward for us to begin working together. That’s my sincere hope.”
Even though DPW is putting more money into the land acquisition fund, Stant said he still fears that property owners like Maakestad and Mills may sell their land for commercial development.
“Every year you delay, the land becomes much more expensive,” Stant said. “If the owners don’t get interest from the city, they’re going to rezone it for industry. They’re not gonna wait forever.”
The city faces a Nov. 1 deadline to pass a 2025 budget.
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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Featured image: As Mayor Joe Hogsett walks into the City-County Council meeting Aug. 12, 2024, people hold signs from the Indiana Forest Alliance, whose supporters are unhappy with the proposed funding to acquire urban forests in the 2025 city budget. Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy
