Conservation Group Acquires 100 Acres Along Lake Michigan

HOBART, Ind. (AP) — A conservation group that works to protect Indiana's unique dunes habitat along Lake Michigan has acquired acreage along the lake's shoreline.

Save the Dunes announced Thursday that it's acquired tracts of land totaling nearly 100 acres in Hobart, about five miles southeast of Gary. The Michigan City-based group plans to eventually donate that land to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which covers 15 miles of coastline.

Save the Dunes Executive Director Nicole Barker says few realize the National Park Service hasn't been able to secure the last 10 percent of land within the national lakeshore's 15,000-acre boundary.

Barker says about 35 acres of the newly acquired land is within the national lakeshore and Save the Dunes "is working hard to get the best of what's left" within the lakeshore.