A gunman looking for someone he believed owed him money shot himself inside an Indiana real estate office, where he'd held hostages for several hours earlier, and was taken to a hospital, police said Friday.INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana environmental officials are taking steps at a restored wetland near Fort Wayne to prevent the advance of Asian carp, a non-native species that threatens the Great Lakes.
“The DNR has been dealing with Asian carp since the mid-1990s,” said Phil Bloom, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. “We didn’t ask for them, we don’t want them, and we’d just as soon not see anyone else, especially the Great Lakes, have to deal with them if we can do something to block further movement.”
The DNR announced Wednesday it will install mesh fencing at Eagle Marsh, a wetland that the DNR staff identified as a possible pathway for Asian carp passage under certain flood conditions.
The marsh is just north of Fox Island County Park near Interstate 69 and U.S. 24.
The purpose of the mesh is to stop the advance of the carp up the Wabash River system and into the Maumee River, which flows into Lake Erie.
A permanent solution to prevent Asian carp from being able to pass through this area during floods will take more time to develop, design and construct.
Thirty years ago, an Arkansas fish farmer imported an Asian carp. The species is not native to the U.S., eats voraciously – gaining a pound or two each month – and kills native species.
It’s migrated up the Mississippi River and threatens Lake Michigan. One was found in Chicago’s Lake Calumet, six miles past an electric barrier designed to stop the fish from migrating. Many are worried it will reproduce in massive numbers throughout the Great Lakes.
The carp also have been found below the dam at J. Roush Lake near Huntington.
The DNR convened a recent meeting in Fort Wayne to explore solutions. Data are still being collected and analyzed to determine the degree of risk, and Bloom said the responsible thing to do in the meantime is to implement an immediate, short-term option.
According to the state, the fencing will be substantial enough to withstand floodwaters but will not increase flood elevations and cause property damage. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will provide design guidance on the fencing.
The goal is to have the fencing installed this summer.
The announcement comes after U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., told Gov. Mitch Daniels he’s “deeply concerned” that Indiana officials have downplayed the threat of Asian carp spreading from Indiana waters into the Great Lakes.
Levin wrote Daniels last week, saying the DNR has understated the risk of the invasive fish spreading from the Wabash River system into the lake. He said flooding near Fort Wayne could let the fish bridge the 20 miles between the river system and the Great Lakes.
Levin asked Daniels to take “immediate and decisive action.”
Bloom said Wednesday’s announcement was unrelated to the letter, noting the DNR had called for the meeting in Fort Wayne weeks before Levin’s letter was sent.
Although Chicago waterways remain the likeliest entry point for Asian carp into the Great Lakes, the Corps of Engineers is tasked with finding other potential pathways throughout the Great Lakes basin.
The Wabash and Maumee basins drain in opposite directions and have no direct connection under normal conditions, but their waters mingle under certain flood conditions.
Eagle Marsh straddles a natural geographic divide created by glacial movement during the ice age.
The broad wetland marsh extends across the divide into two key drainage ditches – McCulloch Ditch and Junk Ditch.
McCulloch drains west into the Little River and eventually the Wabash River near Huntington, while Junk Ditch drains northeast into the St. Marys River and then the Maumee River.
If Asian carp cross the divide at Eagle Marsh and reach the Maumee, they would be in the Lake Erie drainage basin, and more costly and invasive steps would have to be taken to protect the Great Lakes from the threat, the state said.
Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said he didn’t want to comment specifically on the fencing because he had not seen the details of the plan or an analysis of the level of threat.
But he was happy to see Indiana addressing the issue head-on.
“The initial Indiana reaction seemed to be to diminish the problem. We don’t need that,” he said. “We need to face the crisis.”
Brammeier said the biggest problem is the lack of a coordinated plan that focuses on every spot that is likely to be a threat in the coming months and years.
“It’s not about any one state,” he said.
