Swamp coming back

Reality has outpaced Ken Brunswick's wildest dreams.

Back in the mid-1990s, when the rural Bryant resident began dreaming that some of the Limberlost Swamp could be restored to wetlands, he was thinking in terms of maybe 80 acres.

And today?

"We're over 1,500," Brunswick said this week. "And that's just land that belongs to DNR (the Indiana Department of Natural Resources) and Friends of the Limberlost."

To be precise, the total is 1,531 acres.

Another 546 acres of privately-owned land has been restored to wetlands condition. In addition, there's another 25 acres owned by ACRES Land Trust in the Limberlost region as a nature preserve and another 53 acres owned by the Adams County Park Department.

That brings the total of protected wetland restoration acreage in Jay and Adams counties to 2,155, nearly a fifth of the original 13,000 acres of wetlands and swamp that served as an inspiration for author Gene Stratton-Porter before it was drained early in the 20th century for farmland.

"Loblolly Marsh is where we started," said Brunswick. That's where money from the Indiana Heritage Trust, funded by environmental license plates, and the federal Wetlands Reserve Program made acquisition of land possible in 1996.

Today, the Limberlost and Loblolly restoration project involves four separate areas, all of which have grown dramatically in the past dozen years.

Loblolly Marsh Wetland Preserve in Jay County now encompasses 469 acres, and with a recent acquisition has frontage on Ind. 18 at county road 250 west. There is a paved parking area on road 250 west north of Ind. 18, and several trails have been established, including one which is handicapped accessible.

Limberlost Swamp Wetland Preserve stretches from Geneva south and west across the Jay-Adams line, encompassing 841 acres, 200 of them in Jay County. Its southwestern-most boundary is about a mile and a half from the eastern-most boundary of the Loblolly Preserve.

The Limberlost Bird Sanctuary is the oldest of the preserves, dating to 1947 when that land and the Stratton-Porter cabin in Geneva were donated to the state by the Limberlost Conservation Association. Originally 12 acres, it grew to 38 acres in 2000 with gifts from The Portland Foundation and the late Ann Goodrich of Portland. An adjacent 68 acres known as the Music of the Wild has been added more recently. That's the location where Stratton-Porter wrote her book "The Music of the Wild," which marks its centennial year in 2010. The acquisitions made in 2003-2007 now connect the bird sanctuary property to frontage along U.S. 27 where it crosses Limberlost Creek just south of the Jay-Adams line. Entrance to the bird sanctuary is off of the Jay-Adams line about half a mile east of U.S. 27.

The fourth area is the Rainbow Bend of the Wabash River, just northeast of Geneva. It's a 115-acre site along the river that was purchased with funds from the Indiana Heritage Trust and the Wabash River Heritage Corridor in 2000 and 2003. The Rainbow Bend land borders on the Adams County Park Department's covered bridge just east of the village of Ceylon.

Wetlands restoration work on the properties continues. "We're doing a lot of (breaking tiles) yet," said Brunswick. He estimated that about 60 percent of the original wetlands have been restored.

And wildlife at all of the sites is abundant.

"There is a bald eagle nest just south of Geneva," Brunswick said. "We believe they raised one hatchling last year."

Hikers are welcome on the sites, and a new trail is planned at the Music of the Wild in connection with the book's centennial year.

"We're going to have a controlled burn this spring," said Brunswick. "Actually two of them. It helps restore the native grasses by putting the nutrients back in the soil."

A "Go Green with Gene" event is planned for May, and details will be announced later.[[In-content Ad]]