Gary Post-Tribune
By Tim Zorn / Post-Tribune staff writer
A map can show where to go and the best route to get there. But a new map produced by two Chicago-based environmental organizations aims to do more than that.
The “Natural Connections” map shows  for the first time in a single view  the Chicago region’s natural areas from Wisconsin to Indiana. Representatives from Openlands Project and Center for Neighborhood Technology, the organizations that led the mapping project, expect it will provide more than a graphic portrayal of the Chicago region’s natural areas. They think the map  plus the data on the project’s Web site  will show communities and their planners how to connect natural areas to create “green infrastructure” areas where plants and animals can thrive.
“It’s a tool that can be used to be more strategic,” Joyce O’Keefe, Openlands Project’s associate director, said. “We know we can’t protect everything. But with this we can say, ‘Here is a high-quality natural area. Can we link it to something else?’ ”
The 14-county map includes Lake and Newton counties. It also focuses attention on possible natural connections at the state borders, including six along the Illinois-Indiana line. One area, for example, suggests linking Rainbow and Calumet parks on Chicago’s southeast side with Hammond Lakefront Park and the wild bird sanctuary. The project’s organizers wanted to include Porter and LaPorte counties in the map, O’Keefe said, but funding limitations prevented that. Members of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission NIRPC and Save the Dunes Council told the mapping project’s organizers that they’d like to see all of Northwest Indiana included in the map’s next version.
The map provides basic information as planners and land preservation groups look for areas to save from housing or commercial development.
“You’re going to have growth, but you need to guide it,” said Mark Reshkin, a Valparaiso resident and NIRPC environmental consultant. “If you don’t set aside natural areas in the beginning, you’re not going to get them afterwards.”
Tom Anderson, the Save the Dunes Council’s executive director, expects the map’s data will be useful for the Marquette Greenway project  U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky’s proposal for opening most of Lake County’s industrial Lake Michigan shoreline to public use.
“I don’t think people realize how many green spaces remain, even in developed areas like Northwest Indiana,” Anderson said.
