By Louie Stout

Brandon Demitruk has been checking his mailbox daily for more than a month now.

Still no answer from the Indiana DNR.

Demitruk is vice president of the P.N.A. Fisherman’s Club in South Bend. In late March, he wrote a letter to the DNR urging them to consider buying available property on Hudson Lake northwest of South Bend and make it a public access.

The Michiana Walleye Club signed on, too.

The 400-acre lake is a good fishing lake within a short drive of South Bend and LaPorte, but access has been limited.

Until now, the only boat launch lies on the property for sale. It’s there where anglers have paid a small fee to launch their boats for several years.

But the landowner has the site for sale. The state could buy the four acres for $200,000.

We’re not talking about a little easement in a crowded neighborhood. We’re talking about a wooded area with plenty of room for parking and a ramp that could be enjoyed by waterfowl hunters as well as anglers. The land sits along the edge of Hudson’s backwaters and could provide access to waterfowl hunters in the fall.

“The landowner told me he offered it to the DNR first, but the DNR said the only way they could take it is if he donated it,” said Demitruk. “So, our club decided to press harder.”

Is anyone in Indy listening?

DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife Director Mark Reiter says he hears northern Indiana sportsmen loud and clear. The problem he faces is no money and a slow-moving state government system.

“We’re trying to make it happen and haven’t given up,” Reiter said. “But the state’s system for buying land requires several steps and approvals.”

To make matters worse, the DNR no longer has public access funds that once were available for access acquisitions. Sadly, the state budget agency took that away from them a few years ago.

“We keep re-requesting a line item in our budget just for land acquisition, but when the budget gets done, our access item has been removed,” the director added.

The DNR has been trying to procure funds through other grants and sources to cover the Hudson Lake site, but most of those require up-front money.

It’s kinda like a pauper trying to buy a $200,000 house without a down payment, except a pauper has a better chance of doing the deal faster than the DNR.

“We need very patient sellers,” said Reiter. “We’ve had a lot of good stuff (land) disappear beneath us before we could even get it appraised.”

The DNR receives about $4.4 million annually in Wallop-Breaux federal funds from excise taxes Hoosiers pay on fishing tackle and boating equipment. Some of it can be earmarked for land acquisition.

However, the money gets spent on projects that basically maintain the status quo instead of taking advantage of opportunities like this one when they arise.

The state budget agency continues to put more DNR financial burdens on its dedicated license money which is over-stressed as it is.

In fact, budget agency continues to deny the DNR access to duck stamp and gamebird habitat money that it collects from sportsmen each year. While that is a separate issue, it shows how the DNR gets jacked around by higher ranking government officials.

To buy land with federal money, Indiana must front the cost and then get 75 percent of it reimbursed by the feds. Despite that being a good deal, the legislature must appropriate the money and that takes time.

You get the sense Fish and Wildlife employees are embarrassed and certainly frustrated that there is no better way to capitalize on new public access opportunities like Hudson Lake. They want it as badly as we do.

The problem is that no one else in state government, including the governor, gives a damn what northern Indiana sportsmen think.