Indiana Nature LLC

As St. Joseph County decides on what to do with the 110+ acres of public land that make up the former county farm, they're inviting the public to learn about the results of our five-month study into its natural and cultural history and current ecological conditions. Stay for the full event or just the presentation at 6:30. If you care about the future of this property (the land, not the building) now is your opportunity to learn more and speak your opinion on what the county should do with the land.

We were out at Lydick Bog this afternoon recording a segment with ABC57’s Annie Kate as part of a special report she is doing on threats to our local wetlands and aquifer. The special report will air sometime in November. Kudos to Annie for doing this important work.

I never expected to get into the habitat creation/restoration business, until seeing so many projects on the brink of failure due to insufficient maintenance. This native meadow project at the New Carlisle, Olive Township Library was seeded a few years ago, but the contractor allowed it to turn into a hayfield with European cool season grass so dense that few seedlings could penetrate it. We developed an integrated management plan that called for immediate, extreme measures. Yet, we did everything with pinpoint precision (second photo). The last photo is the meadow as of this afternoon. It's much better, but it will likely take at least two more years to reach the point where either the client or we are satisfied with the product. The moral of the story is if you're going to undertake a project like this to insist that your contractor stays in frequent communications and provides status reports and work logs.

We're honored to be back with our friends at Wild Ones Gibson Woods at their biennial native plant symposium. This year, we'll be talking about trees. With over one billion dollars of federal funds going towards increasing urban tree canopies, tree planting is currently a hot topic. We'll go beyond "native" and "invasive" to better understand how responsible tree selection impacts sustainability and resiliency.