Indiana

Heading out on the water this summer? You can help Indiana DNR track wildlife

Published

9 months ago

June 19, 2025

Heading out on the water this summer? You can help Indiana DNR track wildlife

INDIANAPOLIS — During the months of June and July, you can help the Indiana DNR collect data about wildlife along waterways.

The Paddlecraft Wildlife Index started in 2020. This project utilizes volunteers who are already out paddleboarding, canoeing or kayaking. After paddling, volunteers fill out a short survey via postcard about the number and type of animals spotted.

One volunteer in the Paddlecraft Wildlife Index project is Erica Weddle. She operates Simply Fitness in Brown County. You can often find her leading group paddleboard trips on Yellowwood Lake.

“This time of year, probably three or four times a week,” Weddle explained about how frequently she is on the water.

WRTV

Weddle says when she paddleboards, she encourages lake visitors to use all of their senses to really plug into their surroundings.

“Whether they’re feeling something, seeing something, hearing something, maybe it’s just something new and different for them,” she started. “Encouraging people to stop and think about all that and pause.”

She uses this mindset herself when paddleboarding. She says she loves animal watching, and seeing beavers is her favorite.

Attentiveness like this is useful when monitoring for animals to report back to the DNR.

“Indiana DNR has a history of working with the public on data collection,” explained Andy Byers.

Byers is the Furbearer and Turkey Research Biologist for the Division of Fish and Wildlife and Nature Preserves. He explained how the program got started.

“There was this group of people that’s really passionate about the outdoors and were using Indiana’s waterways to get out and look for wildlife. We wanted to use that to our advantage,” Byers recalled.

Volunteers have been reporting their findings to the DNR with this project since 2020. Last year, paddlers put in more than 2,000 hours of volunteer work.

“If I was going to go out and do that by myself, I would have to work 40 hours a week all year, just to collect that much data,” Byers said. “That’s a huge amount of work!”

Volunteers who are already out on the water are acting as the eyes and ears of the DNR to help keep an eye on animal populations.

With this survey, the DNR is specifically interested in 12 animals. They are watching for four mammals: beaver, river otter, muskrat, and mink. There are five birds: bald eagle, great blue heron, osprey, great egret, and kingfisher. There are also three types of turtle: painted turtle, red-eared slider, and Blanding’s turtle.

Weddle took WRTV out onto the lake. Along the way, she was quick to point out the birds flying above, the locations where she typically sees beavers, and all the other animals she spotted.

“Today we saw some blue herons and a couple of turtles,” Weddle explained. “Getting people out on the water and in nature is key to my mission, but also to the DNR.”

The data on the postcard (the time spent on the water, the type of animals, and the number of animals) is used by many different departments in the DNR, not just for Byers and his team.

“We want to share this data with the other biologists that work for DNR who can use that for management decisions,” Byers explained. “We’re also sharing that data with property managers around the state so they can kind of see what’s going on with the land they manage.”

Byers shared that there are over 2,700 volunteers with the program all across the state. He said there are hotspots of volunteers in places like Brown, Steuben, and LaGrange Counties.

You can participate in this program by sending a postcard from a single trip, or send multiple postcards if you’ll be out paddling multiple times throughout June and July.

You can find a link to volunteer in the Paddlecraft Wildlife Index here.

Once you sign up, the DNR will send you materials to get started, including the postcards that you’ll complete and send back to Byers after your paddle.

Byers is constantly combing through the data provided by volunteers. He hopes that now, in the program’s sixth year, he will be able to start seeing some trends developing.

“The goal of this survey is to establish kind of a long-term data set that we can use to look at trends of these species,” Byers explained. “It gives us a really good idea of where in the state people are seeing these different wildlife species.”

Byers is thankful for volunteers like Weddle, and is hopeful that others who love the water will sign up.

“The more people that we have participating, the more data we get, and the more people get to get out and enjoy Indiana’s waterways,” Byers concluded.

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Indiana

Indiana’s Curt Cignetti cashes in on title run with 8-year extension worth $13.2 million per year

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Indiana’s Curt Cignetti cashes in on title run with 8-year extension worth .2 million per year

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is cashing in on his first national championship run — even more than initially expected.

Athletic department officials announced Monday that the two-time national coach of the year has signed a memorandum of understanding on an eight-year contract extension, paying him an annual average of $13.2 million — or an increase of about $1.6 million per year from what school officials said Cignetti would earn when he first agreed to the extension in October.

School officials released the document Cignetti signed Feb. 4.

He joins Georgia coach Kirby Smart and LSU coach Lane Kiffin as the only active Football Bowl Subdivision coaches to receive paychecks of $13 million or more. The payouts could be even higher if Cignetti earns bonuses for winning Big Ten or national coach of the year honors in addition to playoff appearances and conference titles. The 64-year-old Cignetti already has said he hopes to retire at Indiana.

The new deal calls for a base salary of $500,000 per year through the 2033 season and a $1 million retention bonus on Nov. 30 of each year, starting this fall. The remaining portion of the $105.6 million will be collected from outside, promotional and marketing income.

Cignetti initially agreed to an eight-year extension worth $92.8 million — an annual average of $11.6 million — but university officials agreed to modify the deal as the Hoosiers remained undefeated and pursued the first football national championship in school history.

It’s the third time Cignetti has received a raise since he took over the losingest program in FBS history in November 2024. All he’s done since arriving is produce the two best seasons in school history while becoming one of college football’s fan favorites for his quick quips and unique facial expressions. Players have embraced him, too, telling many of their favorite Cignetti tales.

Just ask tight end Riley Nowakowski, who recounted his favorite Cignetti story during the recent NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.

“I think (Alberto Mendoza) was in the game, and he pulled like four runs in a row,” Nowakowski said, referring to last season’s victory over Illinois. “He kept pulling it, kept pulling it, kept pulling it, and then after the fourth time, it was a terrible read. So in the middle of the game, (Cignetti) tells our coach, ‘Get (Alberto) over here.’ Bert’s like, ‘What, it’s the middle of a game, what are you doing?’ And (Cignetti) goes, ‘We’re not paying you to run the ball, hand the ball off, right? We’re up like 70 points, but he’s pissed off, yelling at Bert, and (Cignetti) just turned back at me and gave me one of his little smiles, and he was just like, ’You like that now?’”

Cignetti wasted no time delivering on his promise to win after leading James Madison to the most successful transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to the FBS.

The son of Hall of Fame coach Frank Cignetti and a former Alabama assistant led Indiana to a school record 11 wins and its first College Football Playoff appearance in his first season with the Hoosiers.

Last season, he outdid that mark by producing the first 16-0 mark in major college football since the 1890s. The Hoosiers also won their first outright Big Ten crown since 1945, beat Miami on its home field to claim the national title and shed the label of having the most all-time losses in FBS history.

Mendoza’s older brother, Fernando, also became the first Indiana player to win the Heisman Trophy and is expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL draft.

The reward: A record nine players, including Mendoza and Nowakowski, attended the recent combine in Indianapolis while Cignetti got another pay raise and school officials continued to invest heavily in keeping the coach’s staff together.

Offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines each agreed to three-year contract extensions worth about $3 million per year in December, making them two of the highest-paid assistants in the FBS. Haines won this year’s Broyles Award, which goes to the nation’s top assistant coach.

Indiana will begin next season with the longest winning streak (16) and longest home winning streak (15) in the FBS. Cignetti has never lost a home game with the Hoosiers, who open defense of their league and national titles at home against North Texas on Sept. 5.

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What Tom Izzo said after Michigan State’s win over Indiana

Published

14 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

What Tom Izzo said after Michigan State’s win over Indiana

Michigan State basketball went into Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon and controlled the Hoosiers from start to finish, earning a 77-64 victory. The win goes a long way in almost virtually confirming that the Spartans will have a triple-bye in the Big Ten Tournament, while also bolstering the Spartans case to get a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

For the second straight outing in the state of Indiana, MSU head coach Tom Izzo came away pleased with his group, and expressed that to the media:

“Well, to be honest with you, for once, we got off to a good start. We haven’t been doing that. We decided to try to go inside, Kohler (had) been struggling, we thought we’d try to get him going. We get that 10-point lead and it kind of stayed that way.
“We did not do a great job of building on it, it’s because they’re a good team. Everybody asks me, ‘Are they good enough to be in the tournament?’ Read my lips: hell yes. It’s just that somebody’s got to lose some of these games. The league is so good.”
“I’m proud of my guys, because coming back from that Thursday-Sunday deal, both on the road, I thought they showed a lot of character. I’m proud of my staff, those preps are not easy at this time of year. Kur came off the bench and really sparked us after making more than a few mistakes.”
“What I appreciated about the game is I thought Jeremy took over. Everything we asked him to run early, to go into Jaxon, he did a great job of. I thought Kur, who’s a sophomore now, took a big step forward after not playing very well the 5 minutes he was in there early and falling down and giving up 3s, and then he bounced back. That’s kind of what you’ve gotta do.”
“We did it a little different way. We said this will be kind of like the NCAA Tournament where you’ve got a one- or two-day prep, one-day prep, so I think it was good for us. I’m really proud of them, but I don’t want to be proud of them until I’m done playing.”
“All in all, guys, we’re in spring break, which means you can practice like 100 times, and nobody arrests you or anything. But our guys deserve some time off and we’ll get some things done tomorrow. “

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on X @Rex_Linzy

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Indiana

Coast Guard investigates death of mariner working barge in Jeffersonville

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Coast Guard investigates death of mariner working barge in Jeffersonville

U.S. Coast Guard officials are investigating March 1 after a mariner died while working on a barge in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

An incident involving the mariner occurred the afternoon of Feb. 27 at mile marker 597 of the Ohio River, said Lt. Cmdr. Steve Leighty, public affairs officer for the U.S. Coast Guard Ohio Valley Sector. Leighty declined to provide further details about the mariner and the circumstances of their death, citing the ongoing investigation.

Officials with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office are also investigating the incident, Leighty said.

Reach reporter Leo Bertucci at lbertucci@usatodayco.com or @leober2chee on X, formerly known as Twitter

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