[Many, many more articles below including both Jane and Tom]
IN MEMORY OF TOM DUSTIN
Indiana has lost another founder of its environmental movement. Tom Dustin passed away on July 10. He was 80.
His wife Jane passed away in November. Together they were founders of Indiana's environmental movement, and together they won many victories for Indiana's environment with their manual typewriter, relentless research and persistence.
They helped create the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in the 60's and opposed Maumee River widening in the 80's. They helped found ACRES land trust in 1960 to preserve natural areas in northeast Indiana.
Tom led the campaign to remove phosphate from detergents in Indiana in the 70's; phosphates cause algae blooms and slowly kill lakes. In the 60's and 70's Tom was basically the only environmental lobbyist in the Indiana legislature; he helped secure a new law establishing Indiana's system of nature preserves. Tom also led the successful effort to protect the Big Walnut Creek valley from destruction by an Army Corps of Engineers reservoir. In the late 60's and early 70's, he was a leader in the effort to halt the Wabash River barge canal, which a writer for the Indianapolis Star called, "one of America's longest-running political pork barrel acts."
Tom served as president of HEC from 1989 to 1991. He also served as first president of the Allen County Park and Recreation Board, and helped create Fox Island Park and Nature Preserve. He was executive director of the Indiana Division of the Izaak Walton League for 13 years.
Tom also served as national vice president for the Izaak Walton League. His other endeavors of a national scope included being named to a presidential task force for the National Parks Service in the 70's, wherein he helped plan the direction of the national park system for the next 100 years.
Addressing the HEC annual congress in 1998, Tom said, "One does not have to conquer a river to feel its tug upon our souls; in the very end, one is not even required to paddle it to feel its magic. As with a distant wilderness that we may never see, it is a fulfillment to know at least that it is there, and with that knowledge as our main reward, we are justified to fight like junkyard dogs to assure present and future generations that a good representation of these creations remain to enrich all life by its very existence."
Tim Maloney, HEC Executive Director, says of Tom, "A passionate writer, inspiring speaker and tireless advocate, Tom was no doubt working on behalf of the environment up to the day he died. We have lost a true force for things green and wild."
Indiana will sorely miss Torn and Jane Dustin, who staunchly defended our rivers and wetlands for 50 years, and who have so inspired us to carry on their spirit and practice of eternal vigilance.
The family requests that memorial donations be sent to Red Desert Campaign, Wyoming Outdoor Council, 262 Lincoln St., Lander, WY, 82520, with "Dustin memorial" in the memo line.
Tom is survived by two children and three grandchildren.
The Monitor is published quarterly by the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette and the Fort Wayne News Sentinel contributed to this article.
Longtime local environmentalists Tom and Jane Dustin might be better remembered for their vocal and sometimes fierce efforts to protect the environment. But the Huntertown-area couple also tried to interest new generations of people in safeguarding natural resources and to prepare those converts for the battles lying ahead.
Early Friday, Tom Dustin passed the torch — and the challenge — to those new generations when he died after an extended illness. Arrangements are pending; his age and place of death were unavailable late Friday.
His death came seven months after the death of his wife in November.
"I don't know if there is anybody who can fill those shoes," said Ron James, president of the Fort Wayne chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a national conservation group. "Certainly there are people who are better prepared because of Tom and Jane's work."
The Dustins began their battle here to save the environment in the 1950s, working with others to protect what later became Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes State Park along the state's Lake Michigan shoreline.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Tom Dustin almost single-handedly served as the environmental lobby in the Indiana legislature, said Steven Higgs of Bloomington, a former reporter who now produces a weekly online publication, Bloomington Alternative. Higgs featured the Dustins prominently in his 1995 book, "Eternal Vigilance: Nine Tales of Environmental Heroism in Indiana." Tom Dustin also was environmental affairs adviser for the Indiana Izaak Walton League for the last few decades.
In the early 1970s, Dustin's work resulted in phosphates being banned from laundry detergent in Indiana, Higgs said. Phosphates had been found to cause algae blooms in lakes and streams, which resulted in fish kills and the gradual death of lakes. The Dustins also opposed landfill expansions and helped protect what became Fox Island County Park southwest of Fort Wayne.
During the 1980s, Tom Dustin helped southern Indiana environmentalists protect Hoosier National Forest from clear-cut logging, Higgs said. Dustin also helped get a portion of the forest set aside as the Charles C. Deam Wilderness.
"Tom and Jane Dustin were giants in the Indiana environmental movement," Higgs said. "They have been inspirations to hundreds if not thousands of environmentalists all over Indiana."
At a recent memorial gathering for Jane Dustin, longtime environmentalists stood with parents of elementary-age children, college students and neighbors.
"They really energized a lot of people," said David Van Gilder, a friend and president of ACRES land trust. The Dustins were among 16 people who founded ACRES, which has worked since 1960 to preserve natural areas in northeast Indiana.
Tom Dustin's skills as a writer and orator made him a statewide voice for environmental conservation, said Paul McAfee, president of the Little River Wetlands Project.
"He had such a logical and impassioned way of presenting it, people listened," said McAfee, whose group is seeking to restore wetlands that once linked the St. Marys River west of Fort Wayne to the Wabash River system.
The Dustins' diligent research and doggedness also won admiration, even from opponents.
"You couldn't ignore them," said Allen County Commissioner Ed Rousseau, who faced off against the Dustins for 30 years on issues ranging from managing legal drains to a flood-control project that involved widening the Maumee River east of Fort Wayne. "They never wore out and went away."
While they at times came across as aggressive, the Dustins always did their homework, Rousseau said. Their research frequently saved the county from discovering it needed to fix or change work during a construction job.
"A lot of times, the Dustins' objections would bring about better engineering of the project," he said.
Although at times also on the opposite side of the table, state officials expressed gratitude for the Dustins' work.
"Both Tom and Jane were advocates for keeping our doors open and inviting citizens in to our rule-marking and permitting processes," said Lori Kaplan, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
The Dustins — and Tom in particular — helped secure passage of laws allowing the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to set aside nature preserves, DNR officials said.
"Tom Dustin was a true conservationist who was doggedly determined to make government better," said John Goss, DNR director.
That job now will rest in the hearts and hands of a broad-based group of people the Dustins have tried to inspire and prepare.
"They understood the next generation has to fight as it sees fit," the Izaak Walton League's James said. "But they also wanted to arm them with the institutional knowledge and history."
Tom Dustin, an environmentalist whose tenacity and love of the outdoors brought changes locally and nationwide, died Friday. He was 80.
Dustin – who was professionally an advertising manager, technical writer and public relations man – was also involved in several other areas, ranging from the arts to scouting.
He was best known in Fort Wayne for his passionate opposition to the Maumee River widening project in the 1980s, designed to prevent flooding, and for his efforts to limit construction of the General Motors plant, in which he sought more stringent controls on the emissions the plant was expected to generate.
Dustin’s reputation, however, was national.
His first involvement in environmental issues came in the mid-1950s, when he and wife Jane became involved in scores of conservation campaigns, including one opposing a federal plan to flood Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.
In the 1960s he was part of the drive to create the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and in the 1970s spearheaded the drive to remove phosphate from detergents in Indiana. After his victory here, other states quickly followed.
In the 1970s he was named to a presidential task force for the National Parks Service in which he helped develop steering for the national parks for the next 100 years. John Dustin, his son, said his father was an avid outdoorsman who learned his appreciation of the outdoors from his grandfather and later from his wife’s family. He was a hiker and backpacker who loved exploring the outdoors of Wyoming and Oregon, and those experiences reinforced his commitment to preservation.
His wife, who died nine months ago, came from a similar background. She was a water expert, and the two made a formidable team.
He was among the co-founders of Acres Inc., a land preservation group; had been business manager of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic; director of the Limberlost Girl Scout Council; director of the Fort Wayne Art School and Museum; national vice president of the Izaak Walton League; the first president of the Allen County Park and Recreation Board, where he helped develop Fox Island Park and Nature Preserve; and president of the Hoosier Environmental Council.
“He wasn’t afraid of anybody or anything,” said Connie Wick, who worked with him for more than 30 years on environmental causes. She said many people had a sort of love-hate relationship with him. “You might disagree with him, but you couldn’t help but admire him. He attended meetings of water and air pollution control boards when only high-powered executives attended. He helped us develop the nerve to go up against those heavy-metal guys.”
Dustin educated himself by reading, attending seminars and poring through government reports. “He let no page go unturned” when pursuing environmental issues, Wick said.
Dustin’s involvement in the Izaak Walton League came about almost by accident when he bought land for a home overlooking Cedar Creek in northern Allen County. The league’s clubhouse and nature preserve were next door to the property. He joined the organization in 1960 and was state secretary within three years. In the end he served 13 years as the group’s executive director and principal lobbyist.
“He was an expert in his field,” John Dustin said. “He taught me that you don’t get rules changed by breaking the rules. You get the rules changed by working within the rules,” and he did that using evidence and fact.
Even in his old age when he was largely homebound, Wick said, “He’d fire off grenades that would cause people to sit up and take notice.”
Allen County Commission Ed Rousseau, who has known Dustin for more than 30 years, said the county’s residents were better served because of Dustin’s scrutiny. Although Rousseau and Dustin were on opposite sides of many issues, they had a heart-to-heart talk after Dustin’s wife died last year.
“He and I have parted on extremely good terms,” Rousseau said.
Just a few months ago, Jane Dustin passed away. On Friday, Jane's husband Tom also passed away. Tom and Jane now pass into the the legend of 'eternal vigilance' that is environmentalism in Indiana. You've got to be tough, persistent, patient and you've got to continue on even when there seems to be no hope that anything good can be accomplished. You've got to balance a sense of outrage with a sense of humor. The Dustins, who worked together as a team, did all these things. They not only accomplished a lot, they served as an inspiration to many others. From the generation that founded environmentalism in northern Indiana, none contributed more than the Dustins.
Tom Dustin was northeast Indiana’s most knowledgeable and effective advocate for the environment. And his influence went far beyond the area to affect policies statewide and in other parts of the nation.
To Fort Wayne residents, Dustin, who died last week at the age of 80, may be best known for being a thorn in the side of local officials who decided in the aftermath of the 1982 flood that widening and dredging the Maumee River from the confluence eastward was the most realistic plan available to reduce flood levels. Dustin fought the plan at every turn, arguing that not only would the widening kill trees and wildlife, but it would simply send floodwaters downstream more rapidly, damaging the river channel and causing even more flooding downstream. Dustin’s efforts ultimately failed, and though officials still praise the flood-control benefits of the project, the erosion of the river channel has been documented, most prominently by washouts of a trail along the widened river.
The river-widening project was just one of countless environmental battles Dustin fought. He is credited with being in the forefront of efforts to eliminate the polluting phosphates commonly found in detergents until the 1970s. He successfully fought to protect the Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana from clear-cut logging. He and his wife, Jane, were involved in a number of other environmental causes dating back to the mid-1950s, when they fought a proposed dam project in Utah that would have flooded one of their favorite camping spots.
Together, the couple – The Journal Gazette’s Citizens of the Year in 1993 – were a tandem to be reckoned with, and their knowledge of environmental issues was as strong as their passion for nature and environmental protection. An advertising and public relations man by trade, Dustin knew how to capture the public’s attention and how to sway public opinion.
Dustin was an even stronger environmental steward than he was an advocate. He helped form the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, was instrumental in beginning Fox Island County Park and was a founder of ACRES, Inc., which buys land and makes sure it remains undeveloped.
Though best known for his environmental work, Dustin was interested in a number of public policy issues and served on numerous boards.
Dustin died just seven months after his wife and two years after fellow environmentalist William Bloch
Northeast Indiana residents can only hope that a new generation of effective environmental stewards and advocates will emerge over the next few years.
For anyone who cares about nature, environment and the responsibilities of citizenship, there may be no better role model than Tom Dustin.
Jane H. Dustin, a passionate environmental advocate celebrated for her tenacity and her broad knowledge of water quality issues, died Friday at her home in Huntertown. She was 74.
Beginning in the mid-1950s, Dustin and her husband, Tom, were involved in scores of local and national conservation campaigns, including opposing a federal plan to flood Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and the drive to create the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in the 1960s.
Jane Dustin is also credited with helping to develop state regulations to protect Indiana's waterways and establish water quality standards for the state.
The Dustins were also among the co-founders of Acres Inc., one of the most successful land preservation groups in the country. Jane Dustin served as the group's secretary for 35 years and headed the land acquisition committee.
Born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Jane Dustin earned a degree in farm operations from Iowa State University.
With no formal training in environmental science, the couple obtained their environmental educations on their own, reading, attending seminars and slogging through government reports.
With her knowledge of water quality issues, she led the Izaak Walton League of America's Water Quality Committee.
The Dustins drew fire for their passionate opposition to the Maumee River widening project that was designed to prevent flooding. They had argued that other flood control measures - including reforestation of the flood plain, wetlands preservation and planting grass in farm field waterways - should be tried before construction projects were launched.
Dustin and her husband were currently involved in a campaign opposing federal plans to allow energy exploration in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.
Most recently, the Dustins were part of a group charged with developing a plan to protect Cedar Creek from erosion, drainage problems, logjams and water pollution.
Dustin was honored many times for her environmental work. She was a recipient of the Izaak Walton League's highest recognition, the Founders' Award. She was most recently given the IPALCO Award for her work.
"She has been a tireless and selfless champion for decades," said Tim Maloney, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council. "She has left such a mark on Indiana. She fought to strengthen water quality standards to protect public health and aquatic life. She worked on both the regulatory side and the conservation side."
"Besides being such a strong and public champion of the environment, she was a very nice person, generous and kind," he added. "The Dustins welcomed visitors to their home."
Fellow environmental activist Ethyle Bloch, regional vice president of the Indiana Division of the Izaak Walton League of America, remembers paddling the rivers of northeast Indiana with Jane Dustin searching for evidence of overflowing sewer drains long before the issue entered the public consciousness.
"Jane had all the knowledge, and I learned so much from her," Bloch said. "She was a wonderful lady, so knowledgeable I couldn't keep up with her."
I suppose lots of people didn't like her," she added, "but they didn't like environmentalists."
The Dustins drew plenty of fire from critics, who argued that the couple were not willing to compromise with their adversaries.
Allen County Commissioner Ed Rousseau, who was frequently on the other side of drainage issues from the Dustins, remembers Jane Dustin as a well-informed and passionate environmentalist who held Allen County officials strictly to the law.
"They've both contributed very much," Rousseau said. "And they put the rest of us to the test, whether we're following the law. They worked very hard for what they believed in, and that's what they'll be remembered for."
"With people like Jane or Tom around," he added. "you'd better be doing it right."
In addition to her husband, Dustin is survived by a daughter, Mary of Leesburg, Va.; a son, John of Whitefish, Mont.; and five grandchildren.
No services or calling are planned.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Jane H. Dustin Memorial Fund in care of Acres Inc., 2000 N. Wells St., Fort Wayne, IN 46808.
Jane Dustin's tireless passion left a splendid legacy of cleaner air and water in Indiana. Her death stills a voice that will be deeply missed in state and local environmental debates.
Although known primarily as an environmental activist, her life can serve as an inspiration to any citizen seeking to make a difference in public policy. Jane and her husband, Tom, another prominent environmentalist, never campaigned for public office. But they may well have exerted more influence than some legislators, relying on nothing more than diligence, tenacity, and passion in promoting their goals. They were also zealous in using the state's open meetings and records law to make their opinions known and hold government officials' accountable.
They lobbied legislators, appealed zoning and regulatory actions, served on public bodies and zoning groups, wrote countless letters to politicians, bureaucrats and newspapers.
"We should grapple those rights to our hearts," she said in a story announcing the Dustins' selection as The Journal Gazette's citizens of the year in 1993.
The list of causes in which Jane Dustin made a difference include: establishment of the Dunes National Lakeshore Park, passage of the Indiana Nature Preserves Act, establishing the Fox Island Nature Preserve in Allen county and banning phosphate detergents from state waterways. She fought unsuccessfully against the Maumee River widening in the 1980s, but gained a measure of vindication years later from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The agency told the Maumee River Basin Commission to repair erosion along the banks in Fort Wayne, the same problem she had warned against before the project began.
She was active at the time of her death, participating in planning to protect her beloved Cedar Creek from erosion, drainage problems, logjams and water pollution.
Her life mocks fashionable beliefs that politics is a game strictly for special people with money and social status to bring them influence. Jane Dustin was an outstanding environmentalist and even more outstanding as an active citizen.
She engaged her passions, and the state is richer for her having done so.
Jane Dustin, who lived near Huntertown, was one of Indiana's most determined volunteer environmentalists. She died Friday, leaving a legacy of service to everyone who prefers clean water to polluted water.
Dustin, 74, and her husband, Tom, were crusaders for environmental protection long before environmentalism was a movement that made headlines. Two examples among scores we could offer: They played large parts in creating the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and in founding ACRES, a conservation group that preserves natural areas in northeast Indiana.
She learned the intricacies of state and federal regulations governing water quality, then used that knowledge to press an unrelenting campaign to clean up Indiana's water. Much of her work involved corresponding with and speaking before government agencies, but she could be a hands-on watchdog, too. In the early days of the federal Clean Water Act, for example, she canoed Fort Wayne's three rivers, looking for illegal discharges of sewage.
Here's one thing that really set Jane Dustin apart from most people who would describe themselves as "environmentalists": She cared about preserving natural blessings before she could see the problem from her front porch.
Many people won't act or speak or even bone up on environmental issues until they see immediate threats to their neighborhood -- say, a new factory, a shopping center or a landfill. NIMBY, not in my back yard, is a label often attached to such activists.
But Jane Dustin worked on water-quality issues throughout Allen County, surrounding counties, the state and sometimes even distant states.
If Jane Dustin was a NIMBY, then the world was her back yard.
Local folks concerned about conservation said they will have to work as a group to fill the void left by the death of environmentalist Jane Dustin.
"Jane had years and years of experience with the law and with regulations, and we all are going to try to sit down and pick up the pieces," said Al Diefenbach, president of the Cedar Creek Wildlife Project.
Dustin, 74, died Friday at her home overlooking Cedar Creek, a stream she and her husband, Tom, worked for decades to protect and preserve. Her family plans a memorial service for a later date.
The Dustins' environmental conservation work dates back to the 1950s. They have been a part of saving areas ranging from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan to Fox Island County Park in southwest Allen County.
They were part of the group that launched ACRES Inc. land trust, which now maintains 50 nature preserves throughout northeast Indiana. She served on the ACRES board of directors for 40 years.
The Dustins also battled stream widening and channelization, landfill expansions and the discharge of untreated sewage from city wastewater-treatment plants and septic systems. Her focus has been water quality and the preservation of wetlands and shoreline habitat.
"They ate, slept and breathed this concern and passion for environmental issues," said Christopher J. Crow, an assistant professor of geosciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne who had been working with the Dustins on water-quality and wetland issues.
One of the keys to carrying on her work will be dividing it up, because no one person stands ready to devote the time Jane Dustin did.
"She was working as full-time volunteer staff for the Cedar Creek Wildlife Project and the Indiana Division of the Izaak Walton League," said Karen Griggs of Ashley, a friend and active member of both organizations.
The Cedar Creek group functions as a neighborhood association and environmental-conservation organization for landowners in the Cedar Creek watershed.
Dustin nurtured and prodded people to get involved, which has prepared those people to take up her cause, Griggs and others said. A broader spectrum of people working together potentially could be as effective as Dustin was alone, said Diefenbach and David Van Gilder, a local attorney, Cedar Creek resident and environmentalist.
But getting more people involved also is like inviting a group to row a multi-oared boat, Van Gilder said. They need someone in the middle chanting and keeping everyone coordinated and rowing together.
For decades, Dustin filled that role so well, he said. "That is what I think is going to be lost - somebody minding the store," he said.
Honoring Dustin: The family has requested any donations be made to the Jane H. Dustin Memorial Fund at ACRES Inc. land trust, which hopes to acquire land along Cedar Creek in her memory. Donations can be mailed to: ACRES Inc., 2000 N. Wells St., Fort Wayne, IN 46808. For information, call 422-1004.
Indiana's environment lost one of the best friends it has ever had - or ever will have - when Jane Dustin passed away the day after Thanksgiving at her home in Huntertown just north of Fort Wayne.
Former Hoosier Environmental Council Executive Director and close Dustin friend Jeff Stant put the loss this way in an e-mail to the Sierra Club's Hoosier-Topics list: "She wasn't just a well-known activist. Not just one of our leaders. When it came to the creeks, the rivers, the lakes and wetlands of our beloved state, she was the one who never rested. She was the leader. She was our leader."
Current HEC Executive Director Tim Maloney echoed his predecessor’s sentiments in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: "She has been a tireless and selfless champion for decades. She has left such a mark on Indiana. She fought to strengthen water quality standards to protect public health and aquatic life. She worked on both the regulatory side and the conservation side."
And it wasn't just close friends and environmentalists who held Jane and husband Tom in that high regard. When the Journal Gazette honored the pair as its 1993 "Citizens of the Year," the editors cited "the type of citizenship the Dustins display - passionate, controversial, American-style advocacy."
In an editorial titled Jane Dustin's Legacy, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel said last week: "Jane Dustin's tireless passion left a splendid legacy of cleaner air and water in Indiana. … Jane Dustin was an outstanding environmentalist and even more outstanding as an active citizen. She engaged her passions, and the state is richer for her having done so."
In January 1994, Tom wrote me: "Jane really is a leading authority on the Clean Water Act. Folks from all the other organizations, including HEC, pretty much follow her lead. The fact is that while these days I focus more on a few specific issues, Jane is 'at it' every waking moment."
***
I met Jane Dustin a year or so before Tom's letter when I visited their home to interview Tom for my book, Eternal Vigilance, which featured a profile on him and his lifelong work on behalf of Indiana's rivers, lakes, and streams. The chapter was titled "Tom Dustin: Saving Indiana's Rivers from the Corps of Engineers." Had I known then what I know now, the chapter would have been titled: "Tom and Jane Dustin: Saving Indiana's Rivers." It should have been.
Tom spent much of that day trudging up and down the stairs to his basement office to photocopy newspaper stories and Izaak Walton League newsletter articles about the fight to stop Corps plans to channelize the Wabash River. His many trips were slowed substantially by a heavy-smoker's cough, giving Jane and I abundant time to sit around the long wooden table in their dining area and talk.
It was then that I first experienced Jane’s passion and intensity. In her mid-60s, she was a consummate multi-tasker, stuffing and licking envelopes, talking about Tom and their lives and work together, all the while preparing memorable lunches, snacks, and dinners, never missing a beat. She was “at it” the entire 24 hours or so that I was at their home, as she was when I returned a few months later to photograph Tom for the book.
The focus of those trips was on Tom and the Wabash, and Jane did little to draw attention to her own accomplishments. I soon learned that Jane’s contributions, as Tom described them, were “neither cosmetic nor domestic.” Their pioneering environmental activism in the 1950s and 60s on the Save the Dunes Council and Allen County Reserves (later Acres Inc.) were full partnerships. And those efforts helped set the stage for the environmental movement that burst into the American consciousness following the first Earth Day in 1970.
Like Tom, Jane individually earned the national Izaak Walton League's Founders' Award, its highest honor. In 1992, she was named HEC's Conservationist of the Year. She served as Acres' secretary for 35 year and chaired both the state and national Izaak Walton League Water Quality Committees.
Jane was a recognized authority on the Clean Water Act not only in Indiana but nationally, as well. "And she doesn't take that standing passively," Tom wrote in 94.
***
My contact with Jane the past few years has been limited to a few chance encounters in Indianapolis when I worked at IDEM and she would come down for meetings with the commissioner. From time to time, she called to alert me to issues she thought I needed to know about. And I'd get the occasional 10 x 12 envelope from her stuffed with information about this water quality issue or that.
The last I heard from Jane was last April when she sent a $25 check to support the Indiana Environmental Report, an online environmental news service I publish. I was and am humbled to think that Jane Dustin may have used my work in hers.
With all the benefits of hindsight, I recognize today that Jane influenced my life decades before I ever met her. Indeed, every citizen in Indiana is indebted to her, not just those of us who were privileged enough to experience the fire in her eyes and the passion in her soul. All who follow will have to work that much harder. Jane Dustin is irreplaceable.
Steven Higgs is editor of The Bloomington Alternative.
To the editor:
A few years ago I visited my friends, Jane and Tom Dustin, at a remote campsite on Steamboat Mountain in Wyoming’s Red Desert where they were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. After they accepted my proffered watermelon and white wine and expressed their condolences for my car’s rapidly deflating tires, we settled into a night of stories, accompanied by the calls of coyotes and great horned owls. The tales ranged from the Dustins’ combined efforts to create the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and protecting Indiana’s water quality to Tom’s tribulations of getting treed by a wild stallion near here. We spent a weekend of walks, wonder and ramblings — as they taught me about a magic mountain in my own backyard.
I will never forget that time. Jane’s laughter, soft words and loving nature combined with Tom’s equally loving nature but slightly drier political commentaries. They are family to me — and to many of us in Wyoming. When we heard last week of Jane Dustin’s passing, we grieved for a hero who championed protecting wild lands here from Wyoming’s Red Desert and the Bridger Teton Nation Forest to the Upper Green River Valley. Indiana residents need to know that Jane and Tom Dustin are conservation icons not only in Indiana, but in Wyoming and other states as well.
But we grieved in Wyoming more at the loss not only of an environmental lioness, but also of a dear friend who will be remembered as much for her kindness as her courage.
Several years ago, a group of Red Desert lovers started to refer to one spring on Steamboat Mountain as “Dustin Springs” in honor of this incredible couple’s love of this land and their indefatigable efforts to protect it. When Jane heard about this new-fangled addition to the desert lexicon, she protested. Her humility will also be missed.
All of us in Wyoming miss you, Jane, as a dear friend and a fighter for so many things good in this world. You will never be forgotten.
Mac Blewer Outreach Coordinator Wyoming Outdoor Council Lander, Wyoming
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