Karen Wade in Betley Woods at Glacier's End

“Just imagine the vastness of our state’s natural heritage”

Guest post by Karen Wade

As a mostly-native plant gardener, I can often be found in my backyard on hands and knees tending pots of pawpaw seedlings, tucking soil around newly planted native spicebushes, or just hanging out on the back step marveling at how the bumblebees manage to squirm their oversize wiggle bottoms inside the white turtlehead blossoms. My suburban yard in town won’t win any garden club prizes, but I hope it provides my friends and neighbors with a glimpse of what native gardening can look like, and the ecosystem benefits it bestows.

As much as I love my native garden, I know, however, that my yard won’t ever sustain significant populations of state-endangered weft ferns, huge oak trees 150 years in the growing, or a breeding pair of cerulean warblers just returned from their wintering habitat in South America. It’s just not possible.

Our suburban yards are but minuscule fragments of what once was a continuous unbroken forest of trees from east to west across the state. It was these vast forests that nurtured Indiana’s native species, including filmy weft ferns that grow in moist caves and rock crevices, sturdy oak saplings that would one day become regal old growth giants, and dense undisturbed canopy habitat required by nesting cerulean warblers that, as their name implies, are as blue as the sky.

Can you even imagine the complex interwoven ecosystems these Indiana forests sustained? And what about the native prairies? And the marshes and wetlands? Just imagine the vastness of our state’s natural heritage back then.

Although I can’t return to that pristine past, I can and do actively support CILTI in the present. I choose to do this because, as a CILTI supporter, I can help to preserve the remaining important and irreplaceable places like these in Indiana, places large enough to support and maintain populations of delicate ferns, majestic oaks, cerulean warblers, and the myriads of other interconnected native flora and fauna that depend on these places to live and thrive.

Over ten years ago I became a CILTI supporter, volunteer, and donor, and for the last five years I have had the privilege to serve on CILTI’s board. My volunteer experiences, both in the field and at events, have evidenced over and over again the CILTI staff’s enthusiasm, credibility, and desire to teach and share the beauty of our preserves and the natural history of the creatures that call these places home. My years on the board have resulted in a deep appreciation for the passion, science, strategy, partner spirit, and dogged determination the staff and my fellow board members bring to each and every land protection opportunity.

This Thanksgiving I am grateful to be part of CILTI’s corps of conservation crusaders dedicated to protecting and faithfully stewarding as many natural areas in the state we can. Our hearts and minds are absolutely in this for the long haul. And while I can’t realistically expect forests to ever again stretch continuous and uninterrupted across the state, thanks to CILTI’s commitment and our donors’ support, I do envision continuing to protect them, building interconnected vibrant ecosystems that are vital for our native species to flourish and for us to enjoy.

Just imagine! Won’t you join me in this vision and consider supporting CILTI this Giving Tuesday?

Karen Wade

Board Member

Before retiring, CILTI board member Karen Wade worked for Eli Lilly & Co. In retirement she volunteers for a number of organizations, including the Indiana Master Naturalist program, Johnson County Native Plant Partnership CISMA, Meadowstone Therapeutic Riding Center, and Leadership Johnson County.