Panel Approves Wapi-nipi Nature Preserve In Eastern Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana has a new state nature preserve in eastern Indiana that's named after the region's Whitewater River.

The Natural Resources Commission on Tuesday approved the Wapi-nipi Nature Preserve in an area southwest of Richmond. Wapi-nipi is the Miami Indian word for the Whitewater River.

The new nature preserve is an area that consists of a tall bluff overlooking that river. It's now Indiana's 270th state-dedicated nature preserve and is located within the state's Bicentennial Conservation Area.

The commission also added 406 acres on Tuesday to the Moraine Nature Preserve north of Valparaiso. That nature preserve previously covered 474 acres.

The addition protects an area of rolling ridges, steep hills, fens and a tributary of Coffee Creek and includes a mature beech-maple forest and a rare sedge meadow.