Shifting Baselines — Indiana’s Natural Landscape of 1816 and Today
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time for this Past Event
- Thursday, Apr 11, 2024 6pm - 8pm
Location
Crown Hill Foundation - 700 W. 38th St. Indianapolis, IN 46208
Details
What can the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ former botanist teach us about the degree of change our natural environment has gone through since becoming a state? How can we come to see that what we today think of as “normal” may be skewed?
Indiana’s natural landscape has changed dramatically over the past 200 years, and yet many people are unaware just how much change has occurred. We forget what used to be, and our normal has shifted from what was normal for our predecessors. Bison, elk, wolves and even parakeets (now extinct) once occupied our land, as did vast prairies, forests and wetlands. This presentation will focus on “original” Indiana and how it was different from today. The talk aims to help people become aware of how dramatically Indiana’s natural environment has changed since statehood and to inspire action to protect the remaining remnants of “original” Indiana.