Tucked away behind an elementary school in the eastside Arlington Woods neighborhood is a 20-acre parcel of urban forest that has remained largely untouched for decades.
Jim Maakestad, the owner of the wooded area bordered to the south by Interstate 70, wants to conserve the property, which is currently zoned for industrial use.
In Decatur Township, not far from the Marion County border with Morgan County, Fred Mills wants to do the same thing with a 25-acre parcel of pristine Hoosier forest that his family purchased nearly 200 years ago.
“We’d like people to be able to enjoy it just as we did,” Mills told Mirror Indy of his family’s property.
Both property owners want to sell their land for preservation, and they’re working with Forests for Indy, a project launched by the Indiana Forest Alliance in 2018, to make it happen.
The group is urging Mayor Joe Hogsett to set aside $6 million in next year’s budget to buy those two properties and two others in Marion County. Failing to do so, advocates say, would risk allowing those privately owned forests to be sold to developers.
The group’s goal is to protect the city’s more than 4,000 urban forests, which are defined as a group of trees with a continuous canopy greater than one acre.
“These kinds of places are hidden in plain sight,” Forests for Indy Director Mike Oles said.
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Dozens of members of the Indiana Forest Alliance, wearing “Forests for Indy” T-shirts, appeared at a May 13 City-County Council meeting urging councilors to earmark the funding in the city’s 2025 budget. The city’s current budget is around $1.5 billion.
Councilor Dan Boots, a Democrat, told Mirror Indy he is working with the group “in the pursuit of stopping Indy’s slow but certain deforestation” but said the council “can’t make any promises about achieving specific goals.”
Mayor Joe Hogsett is expected to introduce his budget proposal in August, with final adoption by the City-County Council anticipated in October.
In a statement, a Hogsett spokeswoman said proposals will be reviewed in the coming weeks as part of the 2025 budget process.
Urban forests at risk, group says
European settlers who arrived in Indianapolis more than 200 years ago encountered lush forests teeming with wildlife and native plant species.
Today, about 85% of forests in Marion County are privately owned, with little or no protection from being cut down, according to a 2021 report issued by the Indiana Forest Alliance. The report also found that Indy lags behind other cities in its spending on parks, and nearly two-thirds of residents lack access to a park within a 10-minute walking distance.
The Indiana Forest Alliance is asking the city to purchase the Maakestad and Mils properties, along with 70 acres of flatwood forest on the city’s east side and a 12-acre forest by North Central High School.
These areas have been identified as high priority by the group, in part because the property owners have expressed a willingness to sell their properties for preservation, Oles said.
“This is a winnable fight,” Oles said.
Mills, who is in the process of selling other nearby land to developers, said he hopes to preserve the 25 acres near the Morgan County line. So far, though, he said his talks with city officials have been met with lukewarm interest.
“When it comes to the city, it’s about priorities,” Mills said. “We seem to be able to come up with a million (dollars) here or a million there. Every once in a while, it might be nice to save a tree.”
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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