EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve supporters say they were surprised to learn legislation has been passed that will pave the way to remove restrictions from undeveloped land next to the woods.

If the University of Evansville sells parcel as planned, it would remove a valuable buffer zone between encroaching urban development and the preserve's towering trees, some of which are 300 or more years old, said Christine Theby, president of Wesselman Nature Society.

The nonprofit Wesselman Nature Society contracts with Evansville to operate the nature preserve, its interpretive center and programming. While the city owns the land and pays for capital improvements, it only contributes a portion of the Nature Preserve's annual budget.

With nearly 200 acres of old growth forest, the woods are both a state nature preserve and recognized by the National Park Service as a National Natural Landmark.

It's valuable to the University of Evansville for another reason. In January, UE announced it wanted to sell off the approximately 40-acre plot of off-campus land to help fund construction of a new campus health and wellness center.

However, Theby said it was a surprise to learn in a January newspaper article of UE's plans to get state legislation passed to remove use restrictions on the land and sell it.

"We were not informed that this was going to go down," she said. "In the past, there has been more of a conversation."

Theby said she is hopeful the nature society and university can reach a compromise solution.

Past discussions between the nature society, city and university largely centered on keeping a 10-acre wooded area of the land as an untouched buffer zone. Those discussions have occurred periodically for decades without a solution.

UE obtained the property in the late 1970s through a land trade with the state with the restrictions that it could only be used for recreation or education. The empty land has been used by UE's softball and men's and women's soccer teams. It is currently used by the Lakeview Optimists' football program which UE is offering to help relocate.

Legislative action was required to remove the restrictions.

Bills to do that, Indiana House Bill 1613 and Senate Bill 479, have already passed in their own chambers, supported by local legislators, including representatives Ryan Hatfield, Wendy McNamara, Holli Sullivan and Matt Hostettler, and senators Vanetta Becker, Jim Tomes and Mark Messmer.

Becker said the supporters of the nature preserve did not contact her with any concerns.

A statement from the university did not address specific questions as to whether it would support amending the bills to address the conservation concerns but said:

"The University supports the current legislation that has passed the House and Senate. UE appreciates the conversations that it has already had with neighbors and community leaders regarding the land and how it may be used in the future and looks forward to continuing that dialogue going forward."

Niles Rosenquist, chairman of the Southwest Indiana Sierra Club group, said supporters were never aware the legislation UE mentioned in January had actually been introduced in the General Assembly.

"We have been sort of taken by surprise with these bills," he said.

In a letter to the editor published last month in the Courier & Press, Southwest Indiana Sierra Club group and Evansville Audubon Society proposed the land should be kept as green space and returned to the state if UE no longer has use for it. They wrote:

"This would avoid the likely impacts of commercial development: noise and all-night lighting altering wildlife behavior, paving and land alterations affecting drainage; spills of oil and chemicals; and creation of conditions favoring the invasion of non-native plants species into the preserve."

Alice Rademacher, a former long-time director at Wesselman Woods, said commercial development could greatly impact forest life in the nature preserve.

"The woods is a National Natural Landmark and state preserve, and it's that way because of the plants and animals in it," she said. "The sound and dust, just the light pollution alone, will completely change things. It will no longer be a suitable habitat."

She said many of the birds and animals in the nature preserve depend on the adjoining fields for food.

Wesselman Woods supporters are expected to be at Saturday's Meet Your Legislators Session at 9:15 a.m. in the Browning Room of Central Library.