A Guide to Natural Areas of Northern Indiana , livre ebook

A Guide to
NATURAL AREAS
of NORTHERN INDIANA
A Guide to
NATURAL AREAS
of NORTHERN INDIANA
125 Unique Places to Explore

Text and Photography by
STEVEN HIGGS
Foreword by Jason Kissel
Executive Director, ACRES Land Trust
INDIANA NATURAL SCIENCE
Gillian Harris, editor
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
www.iupress.indiana.edu
2019 by Steven Higgs
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Higgs, Steven, [date] author, photographer.
Title: A guide to natural areas of northern Indiana : 125 unique places to explore / text and photographs by Steven Higgs ; foreword by Jason Kissel, Executive Director, ACRES Land Trust.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2019] | Series: Indiana natural science | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018049707 (print) | LCCN 2018050260 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253039224 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253039217 (pb : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Natural areas-Indiana-Guidebooks. | Natural history-Indiana-Guidebooks. | Indiana-Guidebooks.
Classification: LCC QH76.5.I6 (ebook) | LCC QH76.5.I6 H538 2019 (print) | DDC 508.772-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018049707
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This book is dedicated to all the visionary souls who saw the need to preserve what is left of Indiana s natural heritage and invested their hearts, minds, funds, and souls to protect what precious little remains .

Northern Indiana Highways

Natural Regions of Nothern Indiana
Contents
Foreword by Jason Kissel, Executive Director, ACRES Land Trust
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Natural Area Etiquette
Part 1 THE LAND STEWARDS
National Park Service
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Division of Nature Preserves
Division of State Parks Lakes
Division of Fish Wildlife
Division of Forestry
Indiana Heritage Trust
The Nature Conservancy
ACRES Land Trust
NICHES Land Trust
Shirley Heinz Land Trust
Central Indiana Land Trust
Red-tail Land Conservancy
Ouabache Land Conservancy
Little River Wetlands Project
Other Public Stewards
National Audubon Society Important Bird Areas
Part 2 THE NORTHERN INDIANA LANDSCAPE
Sculpted by Rock, Ice, and Water
Northern Indiana Physiography
The Natural Regions
Part 3 DESTINATIONS
Section 1
List of Sites
Lake Michigan Natural Region
Northwestern Morainal Natural Region
Lake Border Section
Chicago Lake Plain Section
Valparaiso Moraine Section
Section 2
List of Sites
Grand Prairie Natural Region
Grand Prairie Section
Kankakee Sand Section
Kankakee Marsh Section
Section 3
List of Sites
Northern Lakes Natural Region
Section 4
List of Sites
Central Till Plain Natural Region
Entrenched Valley Section
Tipton Till Plain Section
Bluffton Till Plain Section
Black Swamp Natural Region
Part 4 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
Species List
Glossary
Resources
Index
Foreword
My affinity for Indiana was shaped growing up in Southern Indiana, visiting grandparents in Evansville, attending college in West Lafayette, working summers in North Vernon, living in Indianapolis, and, for the past twelve years, living in and exploring Northeast Indiana. I ve grown to value each region s unique culture, land ethic, and natural features.
What I appreciate most about Northern Indiana is its diversity of natural systems. The 125 sites that Steven Higgs explored and photographed for this guide represent and provide access to this vast diversity. At the confluence of three major vegetation types-prairie, northern forest, and central hardwood forest-Northern Indiana is the Crossroads of America for natural plant communities. The blending of these ecosystems results in an explosion of natural combinations not found elsewhere.
Northwest Indiana is the easternmost range of the short and tallgrass prairie system that extends west to the Rocky Mountains. Indiana s northernmost counties begin the northern forests that continue up through much of Canada, turning more coniferous until the tundra s extreme cold prevents tree growth. The central hardwood forest extends from Northern Indiana east to the Atlantic and south until the southern pine forests begin.
Since nature doesn t divide itself into rigid boundaries, the confluence of these three systems results in diverse and unique landscapes. Northwest Indiana s vast prairies morph into oak savannas, and as you travel further east, trees rather than grass begin to dominate. From the north, tree species such as tamarack and aspen start to infiltrate oak and hickory forests.
This means that in Northern Indiana you can discover plant species from the Rocky Mountains, the tundra s fringe, the Atlantic coast, and the Deep South-all in one place. No matter where you are in Northern Indiana, by driving an hour or two, you arrive in a new natural system.

ACRES Land Trust headquarters
Within the three major plant communities, you will also find unique, localized systems scattered throughout Northern Indiana, each with its own discoveries: cacti in the dunes communities, orchids in the fens, carnivorous plants in the bogs, and many other local natural systems that Steven highlights. While giving you your bearings, Steven does not overwhelm with information or spoil the surprises you will discover at each place.
Northern Indiana is also home to a vast, diverse cast of animals. As you experience common sightings of white-tailed deer, possums, bald eagles, raccoons, river otters, rabbits, and turkeys, you ll also be rewarded with occasional sightings of badgers, snowy owls, massasauga rattlesnakes, bobcats, osprey, mink, and quail. If you are really lucky, you may spot some of the black bears beginning to return to Northern Indiana.
Rather than just recommend you read this book, I encourage you to experience it. Get outside and into the amazing places Steven has selected. This book is meant to be marked with your observations and questions-to be dog-eared, mud spattered, sweat stained, and well worn. You are holding a guide, a prompt, an invitation to explore the splendors of our Northern Indiana natural areas, teeming with life.
Go, enjoy, explore.
Jason Kissel
Executive Director, ACRES Land Trust
Preface
Never in my wildest campsite visions did I foresee a ten-thousand-mile journey through the Indiana backcountry reaching its conclusion on Interstate 80 in Lake County-during rush hour-en route to a patch of grassland inside the Hobart city limits. The more poetic version would have faded to black at sunset in Indiana Dunes National Park, sandwiched between Lake Michigan and a sandy, grassy foredune.
However, especially in late July, practicality would trump mystique at the end of a four-year excursion that snaked to and through 250 natural areas, from the swamps of Posey County to the kettle lakes of Steuben, from the sloughs of Dearborn County to the swales of Lake County. Logistically, the exploration had to end at Cressmoor Prairie Nature Preserve.
Besides, the road itself ended at the national park s Duneland Campground on the Dunes Highway, after Cressmoor, which is poetic enough. And ecologically speaking, Cressmoor was the ideal preserve from which to bid farewell to natural Northern Indiana.
While most of the 125 natural areas in this guide are remote and rugged, many, like Cressmoor, are located near or in urban metropolises, such as Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Hammond, or small burgs, like DeMotte, Angola, and Mongo. Cressmoor is surrounded by a country club, an apartment complex, an active railroad track, and a residential housing development.
While a Southern Indiana boy like myself was most transfixed by the northland s waters-29 percent of the photographs in the book feature rivers, lakes, and streams-prairie is the most precious natural landscape in Indiana, north or south. Of the estimated two million acres of grasslands that occupied Northwest and North Central Indiana in pre-European settlement times, only one thousand remain. And 40 percent of those survive at just one site-the Hoosier Prairie Nature Preserve, a Natural National Landmark situated fifteen miles due east of Cressmoor in Griffith, which was the journey s next-to-last stop.

Jasper-Pulaski Fish Wildlife Area
But prairie grass and wildflowers, while critical, are microscopic slices of natural Northern Indiana when it supported the Hopewell, Miami, and other native peoples who inhabited the pre-Hoosier state through the ages. Photographically speaking, water is followed by wildflowers, wildlife, trees, trail scenes, landscapes, bedrock, and grasses in order of the book s visual emphasis. (Speaking of imagery, the photos in this collection represent only the best color, form, and light on given days. They do not necessarily represent the sites unique natural features. Som