The Izaak Walton League was among the leading influences preceding Congressional establishment of Wilderness in the relatively small and fragmented Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana. The League backed a 30,000-acre tract including Nebo Ridge; and then-Senator Birch Bayh secured its inclusion in a Wilderness study bill, but it was cut before final passage. Some time later, a smaller unit of 12,000 acres was established as the Charles Deam Wilderness. But battles to save the forest continued on other fronts. In 1974, the Forest Service proposed an extensive off-road motoring trail system. The League immediately opposed it and appealed the agency's action, contending that such a system would be destructive of all elements of the Forest and inconsistent with all other uses. Within 48 hours of the proposed opening of the trails, the League obtained a Federal Court restraining order against it; and the Forest Service eventually withdrew it. As far as is known, the Hoosier National Forest remains the only unit in the national system to disallow completely off-road motoring. More recently, the Division has added its voice against all commercial logging in the 195,000-acre Hoosier National Forest. The Indiana Division has spent considerable time defending the environment in the courts. One of the more recent cases involved a real estate developer in northern Michigan, who proposed to alter wetlands along Crystal River adjacent to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Not only would the wetlands have been destroyed, the river and national park would have been exposed to the chemically-intensive management required for the golf course. The Indiana lzaak Walton League feared that if such intrusive development went ahead at Sleeping Bear, they could also invade the Indiana Dunes.

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