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Indiana gets $16.5M in federal funding for conservation

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana’s wildlife agency is getting $16.5 million in federal funding for land acquisition and projects at state properties.

The funding for the Department of Natural Resources was announced this week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is intended for wildlife conservation and recreation projects.

DNR chief fiscal administrator Julie Kempf says about $4 million will go toward renovating a shooting range at northwestern Indiana’s Willow Slough Fish and Wildlife Area and to build a new shooting range at west-central Indiana’s Deer Creek Fish and Wildlife Area. Both of those ranges will open later this year.

The funding will also pay for land acquisition for projects including the state’s Healthy Rivers program. That program aims to protect nearly 70,000 acres along Sugar Creek and the Wabash and Muscatatuck rivers.