Meeting to launch Little Calumet East Branch plan

CHESTERTON | The Little Calumet River East Branch watershed group is hosting its first meeting to develop a management plan for the waterway.

The meeting is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Westchester Public Library Service Annex, 100 W. Indiana Ave., in Chesterton.

The goal of the plan is to protect and improve the river, which flows into Lake Michigan. Conservation group Save the Dunes is leading the effort.

"If you want to clean up Lake Michigan, you have to start inland on the land that drains to the lake," Saves the Dunes Water program director Jennifer Birchfield said.

The east branch of the river begins in unincorporated LaPorte County and flows west through unincorporated Porter County through Burns Harbor, Chesterton, Ogden Dunes and Porter.

Agenda items for the first meeting include a description of watershed management, first steps, the water quality monitoring program and a discussion of stakeholder concerns.

For more information, contact Birchfield at water@savedunes.org.