We thank Marion University professor Mary Ellen Lennon for this guest post.
As an educator, I have enjoyed the use of Central Indiana Land Trust resources and properties for student programming. I could not be more pleased to speak of the organization’s mission to students. And as a budding naturalist raising two young conservation ecologists, I eagerly scan my email in search of the next invitation to a public hike or talk sponsored by the land trust. Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 7, 2020
The Central Indiana Land Trust, Inc. (CILTI) is expanding the 60-acre Meltzer Woods Nature Preserve in Shelbyville by buying an adjacent 35-acre agricultural field, where it will plant more than 20,000 trees. The purchase totaled approximately $260,000 and was made possible through CILTI’s Evergreen Fund for Nature and members of the Land Trust. A portion of funds provided came from American Electric Power (AEP), Indiana Michigan Power’s parent company, under a legal settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, eight states, and 13 citizen groups. Continue reading
Media Relations
Creating future habitat for Eastern box turtles and many other species, we kicked off our million tree initiative this year. We’ve pledged to plant one million trees over the coming years in strategic sites, linking up hundreds of acres of fragmented land to benefit sensitive wildlife. Our tree-planting efforts so far buffer Meltzer Woods, Glacier’s End, Mossy Point and Wallace F. Holladay Preserve. Continue reading
Communications Manager
Indiana lost a great champion of conservation last month when Philip Meltzer of Shelbyville died at age 94. Mr. Meltzer was the driving force behind the protection of one of the state’s last unprotected old growth forests—now a state-dedicated nature preserve. Continue reading
Communications Manager
Part of a series on CILTI’s conservation targets by guest blogger Ed Pope
Old growth forests are forests that have not been disturbed for at least 150 years. While they have some exceptionally large trees, there will also be many younger trees. When one of the giants falls, it opens up a hole in the canopy that younger trees will try to fill. Continue reading
Guest Blogger
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2020
A $600,000 grant resulting from a legal settlement equips the Central Indiana Land Trust Inc. (CILTI) to add to the properties it protects in Johnson and Shelby counties. Continue reading
Media Relations
A letter from our executive director
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series of nine off-the-beaten-path preserves. The final featured place and a recap are below, but we also wanted to step back, this Earth Day, to talk about the big picture of land protection. Continue reading
President and CEO
INDYSTAR
By Will Higgins
SHELBY COUNTY, Ind. — Phil Meltzer’s forest at first seems like any other — birds chirp, squirrels scurry, leaves rustle. But then you come to this crazy bur oak tree, an ancient, a giant at 100 feet tall, whereas your average big oak tree is in the 50-foot range. Continue reading
Communications Manager
Meltzer Woods in Shelby County was state’s last unprotected old-growth forest
SHELBYVILLE, IND. (November 5, 2014) – The Indiana Bicentennial Nature Trust has provided the leadership gift allowing the Central Indiana Land Trust Inc. (CILTI) to buy and forever protect and preserve Indiana’s last unprotected old-growth forest, Meltzer Woods. Continue reading
Media Relations
by Cliff Chapman
Executive Director, Central Indiana Land Trust
You probably don’t notice it when you walk into your office building or drive by the bank. The landscaping looks nice, so you don’t pay attention to it. Throughout central Indiana, though, developers and landscapers are using plants that are inexpensive and look good, but plants like burning bush and Japanese barberry are destroying our native habitats and hurting land and water quality.
It’s not intentional; it’s simply a lack of awareness. For that reason, I’m appealing to developers and landowners to stop using these plants and choose native alternatives.
These invasives and others such as callery pear trees, Asian bush honeysuckle and privet are crowding out plants that help keep soil in place, which causes erosion that fills in our rivers and lakes. Some have stronger branches than native plants, making it easier for predators to attack bird nests, thus eliminating wildlife that people using your properties enjoy. Such negative environmental factors hurt our region’s ability to attract economic development.
If you question how something planted in a commercial development can affect nature far away, think again. Plants have a remarkable capacity to spread. We’ve seen countless examples of invasives in protected nature preserves and pristine old-growth forests … places where nobody intentionally planted them.
That’s why we need to work together to stop them.
Most of us have seen one of the nation’s most compelling examples of this problem: kudzu, which has devoured large portions of land in the Southeast. Introduced as a means of erosion control, kudzu has become a menace, spreading at an estimated rate of 150,000 acres a year, killing whole trees and large areas of vegetation by choking out sunlight.
In Indiana, the public has become increasingly aware of Asian bush honeysuckle and garlic mustard, which have taken over large swaths of land. Hundreds of volunteers have helped remove these plants, painstakingly cutting and pulling out those invaders so native plants can grow. We’re making headway, but these invasive plants continue to grow all across the state.
The good news is, developers no longer plant or buy Asian bush honeysuckle (garlic mustard was a garden plant that escaped).
That’s not the case, though, with other invasives including Japanese barberry, burning bush and purple winter creeper, as well as privet and Callery pear (including the Bradford pear). Those invasive plants still are sold at area stores and are popular among landscapers.
So, what can you do? First and foremost, when you’re planting, choose plants other than privet, burning bush, purple winter creeper, Japanese barberry and Callery/Bradford pear. If you have those plants, replace them with non-invasives.
There is no magic bullet, but by working together, we can get these invaders under control and make our landscape more environmentally stable and more attractive to the community.
From IBJ Opinion – August 24, 2013
President and CEO
