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Environment 73 results
Monroe Lake is “the source of our drinking water, a destination for many outdoor activities, and home to a wide variety of critters and flora,” writes Michael G. Glab. This year marks the 60th anniversary of its dedication, and many events are planned to commemorate it. Above, swimmers enjoy the beach at Fairfax State Recreation Area. | Limestone Post

Celebrating Monroe Lake’s 60th Anniversary Series of events and programs planned for lead-up to October reception
Michael G. Glab
We couldn’t imagine living without Monroe Lake, writes Michael G. Glab. The reservoir is “the source of our drinking water, a destination for many outdoor activities, and home to a wide variety of critters and flora.” This year marks the 60th anniversary of its dedication, with many events planned to commemorate it. Read Glab’s article, featuring Interpretive Naturalist Jill Vance.
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Josie Leimbach (left) and Lynae Sowinski met in Bloomington and got married in 2017. Their journey to parenthood has been similar to that for heterosexual couples in many ways, but the journey has also been more difficult emotionally, physically, and financially. | Courtesy photo

Celebrating Diverse Families: Our Journey to Queer Parenthood
Lynae Sowinski and Josie Leimbach
Preparing to have a child is similar in many ways for queer couples as for heterosexual couples, write Lynae Sowinski and Josie Leimbach, who got married in Bloomington in 2017 and now live in Georgia. But in a variety of ways, their parenthood experience has been different — and emotionally, physically, and financially more difficult. Read about their journey to queer parenthood.
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Journalist Steven Higgs “trained” at Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve for a photographic expedition to the Colombian Amazon. Shown here on an Uplands Group Sierra Club hike he led are Amy Henn (front), Mary Carol Reardon (white hat), Will Cowan, and others. | Photography by Steven Higgs

A Half-century Trail from Beanblossom Bottoms to the Colombian Amazon
Steven Higgs
Bloomington environmental photographer and writer Steven Higgs has spent his career covering nature. Soon, though, he will connect two dots in a “half-century trail” when he photographs the Colombian Amazon. This spring, he made several trips to our own protected wilderness, Beanblossom Bottoms, to hone his photographic skills for the Amazonian expedition. Connect the dots here.
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The wide-ranging issues about protecting Indiana’s wetlands present a conflict between people who advocate for the critical functions wetlands provide and those who say wetland regulations drive up construction prices and hamper growth. Above, a swamp in Beanblossom Bottoms in Monroe County. | Photo by Anne Kibbler

What’s at Stake in the Debate Over Indiana’s Wetlands? Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate Wetland Preservation
Anne Kibbler
Laws protecting Indiana wetlands have been rolled back in recent years. Some people argue that wetlands must be preserved because of the critical functions they provide. Others say wetland regulations drive up construction prices and hamper growth. This Deep Dive by Anne Kibbler looks at the myriad questions and wide-ranging issues in the debate over Indiana’s wetlands. Read it here.
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The mobile integrated health program in Monroe County, which works with local health organizations to provide one-on-one care to patients, is part of a nationwide trend to help fill gaps in the healthcare system. Above, community EMTs work in the Bloomington Fire Department’s MIH program (l-r): Trisha Rademachir, Lily Blackwell, Shelby VanDerMoere (program manager), and Amber Stewart. Not pictured is newest MIH Daniel Stidd. | Photo provided by Shelby VanDerMoere

Mobile Integrated Health Helps Fill Gaps in Local Healthcare System
Rebecca Hill
The mobile integrated health program in Monroe County works with local health organizations to provide one-on-one care to patients, emphasizing a non-emergency approach and increasing efforts to meet people where they live and work. Writer Rebecca Hill takes an in-depth look at MIH programs across the state that are part of a nationwide trend to help fill gaps in the healthcare system. Read about MIH in Indiana.
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“Tactility,” a triptych by Rejon Taylor. Among the work of more than two dozen artists featured in the Regional Artist Exhibit at Juniper Art Gallery in Bloomington are two other paintings by Rejon Taylor, an inmate on death row at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute. Laura Lasuertmer, Taylor’s “Minister of Record,” writes about Taylor’s artwork and how it relates to the “depravity of his current environment.”

Juniper Gallery To Show Art of Death Row Inmate Rejon Taylor Special to Limestone Post
Laura Lasuertmer
Laura Lasuertmer is the “Minister of Record” for death row inmate Rejon Taylor, who’s among more than 25 artists featured in the Regional Artist Exhibit at Juniper Art Gallery this spring. Some of Taylor’s artwork, LaSuertmer writes, captures both “what he remembers of the natural world … and the depravity of his current environment.” See and read about Rejon Taylor’s art.
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Mark Stosberg (left) and Taufique Hussain on Maple Grove Road during a recent 21-mile run (which Stosberg says became a 26.7-mile run). | Limestone Post

Why I Found Myself Running 50 Miles Alone in the Wintertime
Mark Stosberg
One recent winter, Mark Stosberg set out on a 50-mile run. He wasn’t racing in or training for an event, so at some point he had to answer the question, Why keep going? To test his physical and mental limits? To satisfy a primal instinct? Or was it therapeutic in some way? Sit back and relax as Mark runs through these questions.
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Beth Edwards was an award-winning environmental journalist for the Indiana Environmental Reporter, based in Bloomington. Limestone Post is republishing four of her most impactful reporting projects: on coal ash, confined animal feeding operations, Martinsville’s drinking water, and a coal-to-diesel plant that had been planned in southern Indiana. | Photos by Beth Edwards (top left and bottom right) and Matthew Kaplan (bottom left); illustration by Sophia Chryssovergis

The Work of Beth Edwards, Award-Winning Environmental Reporter
Beth Edwards
Beth Edwards was an award-winning environmental reporter who, along with Enrique Saenz, developed the Indiana Environmental Reporter at Indiana University into a source for environmental news that was respected statewide and nationally. Limestone Post looks at four of her reporting projects: on coal ash, confined animal feeding operations, Martinsville’s drinking water, and a controversial coal-to-diesel plant. Read Beth Edwards’s work here.
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The Richardson Farm — Close to my home is this scene. When the elements are right, it’s in view from my front yard. There was so much going on with the weather. It had just stormed and the sun was coming back out.

Three Local Photographers Share Motivations, Techniques, Photos
Erin Hollinden
Matt Brookshire, Megan Snook, and Jeff Danielson are Monroe County–based photographers who have different techniques, motivations, and subjects for their art. They have also led interesting lives outside of photography. Erin Hollinden talked with all of them, and they shared some of their work with Limestone Post. Click here for their stories and photographs.
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The “Sense of Place” project in Rachel Bahr’s English 11 class at Bloomington’s Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship began in 2016 with a Limestone Post article written by Sarah Gordon about the original, iconic Chocolate Moose building on South Walnut, which was demolished and replaced with student housing. When possible, students have trekked to the new Chocolate Moose as they contemplate what a sense of place means to them. | Courtesy photo

Bloomington’s 2023 ASE English Students Share Their ‘Sense of Place’ ‘Where You Aren’t Afraid To Be Yourself’
Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship English 11
Since 2016, students in Rachel Bahr’s English 11 class at Bloomington’s Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship have made immersive audio tours about their “sense of place,” someplace they’re personally or sentimentally connected to — or simply “where you aren’t afraid to be yourself.” And they graciously share their videos with Limestone Post’s readers. Click here for ASE’s 2023 “Sense of Place” videos.
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[Photo Gallery: 20 photos]: Legislation recently introduced by Sen. Mike Braun would double the size of the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area by Lake Monroe and convert another 29,000 acres of Hoosier National Forest into the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation Area. This photo was taken from the Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower, which stands 133 steps above the Deam’s Terrill Ridge, a thousand feet above sea level. Built in 1939 to identify forest fires, the tower is a popular destination due to its magnificent 360-degree view of the Southern Indiana forest. | All photography in the gallery above by Steven Higgs

On Saving the Deam Wilderness and Hoosier National Forest | Photo Essay Deep Dive: WFHB & Limestone Post Investigate the Hoosier National Forest
Steven Higgs
“In wildness is the preservation of the world,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in Walden in 1854. Now, in this photo essay, journalist and photographer Steven Higgs considers Thoreau’s declaration vis à vis the Deam Wilderness Area in the Hoosier National Forest, especially in light of proposed legislation that would double the Deam’s size. Click here for a Deep Dive into “the Hoosier.”
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