Lake Free­man News

Looks like the US Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice is look­ing to expand its author­i­ty over some U.S. and Indi­ana rivers includ­ing the Tippeca­noe. Todd Roki­ta, now Attor­ney Gen­er­al of Indi­ana and 17 oth­er Attor­ney’s Gen­er­al are say­ing it’s an unlaw­ful pow­er grab. ​“We need com­mon­sense poli­cies that con­serve both wildlife species and con­sti­tu­tion­al gov­ern­ment,” Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta said. ​“We can pro­tect jobs, the econ­o­my and wildlife all at the same time.”

The pro­posed rules would enable the Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice to des­ig­nate land parcels as indis­pens­able habi­tat for endan­gered species — even if no such species inhab­it the parcels.

“We all want to save endan­gered wildlife,” Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta said. ​“And we all want to pre­serve the crit­i­cal habi­tat where they live. As it turns out, these new rules don’t pro­tect wildlife — and they lit­er­al­ly vio­late the Endan­gered Species Act.”

In a let­ter, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta and oth­er state attor­neys gen­er­al press fed­er­al offi­cials to with­draw their ill-advised plans which will poten­tial­ly put local busi­ness­es in peril.

“We are tak­ing action because these pro­posed new rules rep­re­sent a pow­er grab,” Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta said. ​“These new rules infringe on Indiana’s con­sti­tu­tion­al author­i­ty over our own nat­ur­al resources and fail to pro­vide addi­tion­al mean­ing­ful pro­tec­tion to endan­gered wildlife species.”

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta has a long his­to­ry of defend­ing Hoosiers and the Indi­ana econ­o­my against fed­er­al over­reach in mat­ters involv­ing habi­tat and wildlife.

“If these reg­u­la­tions were to go into effect, the busi­ness­es and econ­o­my of places like the Twin Lakes would be in greater dan­ger,” Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta said. ​“Look what the cur­rent reg­u­la­tions have done to con­tribute to dra­con­ian actions that have ruined the local econ­o­my dur­ing some years.”

When he served in Con­gress, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta fought fed­er­al poli­cies that forced the drain­ing of Lake Free­man and Lake Shafer in north­west­ern Indi­ana as part of U.S. Fish and Wildlife efforts to pro­tect endan­gered mus­sels in Tippeca­noe Riv­er. Such fed­er­al man­dates wreaked hav­oc on the sea­son­al economies of Mon­ti­cel­lo and sur­round­ing communities.

“We need com­mon­sense poli­cies that con­serve both wildlife species and con­sti­tu­tion­al gov­ern­ment,” Attor­ney Gen­er­al Roki­ta said. ​“We can pro­tect jobs, the econ­o­my and wildlife all at the same time.”

It’s nice to see our local, state and fed­er­al politi­cians awake and angry. A copy of the let­ter is attached to read and download. 

Also in break­ing news, the Indy Star report­ed yet anoth­er fresh­wa­ter mus­sel is being pro­posed for addi­tion to the fed­er­al endan­gered species list. The Sala­man­der Mus­sel which is basi­cal­ly starts off as a par­a­site! Can’t make this stuff up, amazing.

Much more to come.

Here is access to the letter—

https://​con​tent​.gov​de​liv​ery​.co…

Con­gress­man Jim Baird (4^th Dis­trict Indi­ana) was re-elect­ed to a sec­ond term. All of us on Lake Free­man could not be hap­pi­er. He has been a stout advo­cate for the Lake. In his promise to con­stituents, he called the Lake Free­man sit­u­a­tion a ​“Cat­a­stro­phe”. He also vowed to make sure the low­er­ing and its’ affects nev­er hap­pens again. A big thank you to Con­gress­man Baird!

We appre­ci­ate Sen­a­tor Mike Braun and all of our elect­ed offi­cials efforts to help mit­i­gate this insane water release man­date. So here we are in Mid-Octo­ber, the Fed­er­al Court of Appeals just heard the SFLECC case. Let’s keep our fin­gers crossed. We had a great ral­ly on Octo­ber 3^rd. Over 250 peo­ple showed up, there were some great signs and a lot of pas­sion­ate speech­es. BUT… this is far from over. News Nation just did a sto­ry fea­tur­ing the man respon­si­ble— Scott Pruitt. He is a Field Super­vi­sor for The US Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice. Watch the sto­ry. Why did he not refer to the man­dat­ed a min­i­mum of 500 cfs of water to be released from the Oak­dale Dam AT ALL TIMES? Not a word. Instead the sto­ry was framed as if the Lakes are respon­si­ble for keep­ing water from the low­er Tippy. 

Here is a FACT: Lake Free­man mus­sel deaths now stand at over 221,200 due to USFWS draw down!!!

It’s get­ting real now. George Wade, own­er of Sports­man Inn, speaks on WLFI18 about the impact of the USFWS water draw down man­date. The only ques­tion is… Where does he send the $10,000 bill? Let’s all help George swing by The Sports­man Inn and any a meal!

In our recent sur­vey, over 200 peo­ple respond­ed to what they real­ly enjoy on Lake Free­man. Over­whelm­ing­ly it is boat rides fol­lowed by fish­ing. The sur­pris­ing thing to us was how low sit­ting around a bon fire was. But hey, we get it, there are so many beau­ti­ful homes to look at. Fish­ing was sec­ond and that’s no sur­prise. The stock­ing pro­gram has proven to be a suc­cess. Crap­pies, Sil­vers, Wall­eye are all being pulled out big and healthy. There is anoth­er sur­vey cur­rent­ly on our home page, please offer your opinion.