Newest nature preserve dedicated
By Darrell Smith, Connersville Examiner, April, 23, 2007
CENTERVILLE – It's so new it's not even listed on the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Web site, but Lick Creek Summit Nature Preserve was dedicated Sunday afternoon.
The dedication service at the Eastern Indiana Beagle Club across the road from the new nature preserve in southern Wayne County, also served as the annual meeting of the Whitewater Valley Land Trust Inc. Retired DNR biologist John Russell said when he hikes in Lick Creek Summit, he can almost see where the glacier from the north ended and the Switzerland Hills came up from the south.
According to information from the Land Trust, "Lick Creek Summit is essentially a gigantic pile of gravel whose steep slopes explain its escape from the earliest settlers' plows…its slopes, coupled with its numerous unique micro-climates explain why it still hosts nearly 400 plant species, 5 percent considered rare and threatened and several non-existent elsewhere in the county."
"As you start to look at a map and see how that map is growing and how much land they are actually preserving, it's pretty impressive," said Copy Environmental Center Program Director Stephanie Hays-Mussoni. "The tools and solutions available for each of us to make a difference in the environment today, saving and preserving land is one of the tools."
She said simple things can make a difference to improve the environment such as reducing what is used, reusing what must be used and recycling those things that can't be reused. Mike Hoff, WVLT treasurer, said the Land Trust hopes to gain more conservation easements in the coming year. There should be one announced in Franklin County in the next few weeks.
Conservation easements are a good way to reduce income taxes on farmers, he said. The government implemented a tax savings last August and it will continue through Dec. 31. Go to www.whitewatervalleylandtrust.org and click on "new" for more information.
Lick Creek Summit is one of four nature preserves that have been founded in the past six years, including Duning Woods, Bolling Woods and Neff Woods. Those three are adjacent but have not been dedicated yet, he said. He said that 150 years ago, the entire area, including the nature preserves, was known as Lick Creek Hills.
One goal of the group is to put together pieces of property to form a new state forest in the county. An effort that is still in the works, Hoff said. He said about 13 years ago, a study was done indicating three areas in the state where new state forests had the potential to be located. The areas along rivers near Lafayette and South Bend, along with southern Wayne County, were the possibilities but development in the other two locations have removed them from the list, leaving southern Wayne County as the last place in the state for establishing a state forest. "A few years ago, then State Forester Bernie Fisher said, "If there is another state forest it will have another look about it, " Hoff said. "We think with conservation easements and the help of DNR, we'll assemble something that will in essence have most of the characteristics of a state forest but will be privately owned." He said Wayne County is fortunate in that is has Mother Nature as a partner in the way counties like Delaware or Hamilton do not and could use the natural resources to partner for economic development.
