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Sycamore Land Trust restores Monroe County wetland

By Sara Molina

Posted February 8, 2023

sycamore land trust

Fix-Stoelting Preserve last fall during tree planting and wetland excavation. (Sycamore Land Trust)

Indiana has lost 85% of wetlands since the 1780s, but nonprofit organization Sycamore Land Trust aims to restore as many natural environments as possible.

Monroe County’s Fix-Stoelting Preserve is one of those, having been fully restored after years of planning.

“Most of our natural wetlands have been either drained or impacted negatively by development or pollution,” land stewardship director Chris Fox said. “So, creating some wetland is our way of kind of helping restore that.”

This 31-acre preserve is part of a larger project Sycamore Land Trust has been working on called the Bean Blossom Creek Conservation. The project targets damaged environments along the creek.

Read more: Sycamore Land Trust Close to Completing Beanblossom Bottoms Boardwalk Renovation

Because wetlands are home to 40% of all biodiversity, restoring preserves is important for the development of animals and insects. Sycamore’s wildlife camera has already caught images of many different species on the Fix-Stoelting Preserve, Fox said.

“There's a lot of deer. It's early to say but we were just looking at tracks over there… potentially bobcat or coyote,” he said. “We see signs of beavers in the creek, I'm guessing that there may be mink and weasel and some less common species.”

Sycamore conducted a three-phase project to restore this particular wetland, Fox said.

The process includes creating a shallow body of water, tree planting and pollinator habitat planting. After purchasing Fix-Stoelting in 2015, Sycamore completed the project in 2022.

“It's going to go wild,” executive director John Lawrence said. “So, it's going to look much more natural than it does now.”

More than 26,000 trees have been planted on this preserve, but Sycamore hasn't done it alone. Lawrence said it takes a village to restore wetlands.

By collaborating with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and many other funders and contributors, the organization has continuously made advancements in many restorations since the 1990s.

Since Fix-Stoelting is a smaller preserve, Fox said Sycamore wants to use the newly restored wetland as an example to the community. Showing Hoosiers the success of restoration on a smaller-scale project can make larger-scale restoration seem more plausible.

“We think this would be a great place to bring groups out to to educate them about the potential for either a wetland restoration or a bottomland hardwood forest planting,” he said.

Sycamore Land Trust plans to continue restoring wetlands to help with flooding, filter out pollutants in water and provide habitat for wildlife.

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