Hoosiers value their environment and the many natural resources that dot the state. Preserving and protecting those resources have always been high on their list of public policy priorities.

Indiana has taken a step in further addressing that priority with the recent announcement that the state’s Department of Natural Resources has acquired nearly 4,000 acres of forests, marshland and upland habitat in Sullivan County, just east of the city of Sullivan. The property is set to become the Busseron Creek Fish & Wildlife Area.

The state is no stranger to the site. The DNR once leased the land and operated it as the Minnehaha Fish & Wildlife Area, although its 30-year partnership with the landholders expired in 2016. Prior to the state’s involvement at the site, much of the vast property — 3,950 acres in all — was heavily mined for coal and the land reclaimed to meet environmental standards at the time.

According to the DNR, the land has been permanently conserved and protected through a collaboration with the Conservation Law Center and its Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape initiative and The Conservation Fund. Additional project support came from The Nature Conservancy in Indiana.

The DNR’s acquisition gives all Hoosiers an opportunity to enjoy this valuable and environmentally rich property. DNR Director Dan Bortner, in a press release announcing the purchase, called the development a “win for conservation and a win for Indiana.”

We agree with his assessment, and we hope all Hoosiers do as well. It comes at a time when Indiana’s political leadership at the Statehouse in Indianapolis has repeatedly rolled back protections for the state’s wetlands in favor of further commercial development.

Those legislative maneuvers, according to environmental scientists, are reducing the positive impacts wetlands can have on flood control, soaking up storm water and cleansing underground aquifers that supply drinking water to citizens.

Given state leaders’ continued willingness to compromise environmental protections to serve business interests in some areas, having the Busseron Creek area in Sullivan County secured by another arm of the state is a strong and positive move that will benefit all Hoosiers for years to come.