How to Discover a Wild Area in the 21st Century

May 21, 2022May 23, 2022 Mike Nowak access to natural areas, Amanda Smith, discovering natural areas, IN Nature, Indiana Nature, Lydick Bog, native plants, Peggy Malecki, Shirley Heinze Land Trust, St. Joseph County Kettle Lakes Corridor, Steve Sass, The Mike Nowak Show

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:03:17 — 58.8MB)

(May 22, 2022) Want to discover a wild area? First, start with a love of nature. Next, be relentless in your passion. Then, get lucky–know a person who remembers seeing an article written in 1913. Use that information to look at satellite maps of the area. Follow that up by slogging through brush and muck in 90-degree heat. Finally, get a land trust to purchase and protect much of the property. Mission accomplished. See? It’s not hard.

If you detect a bit of irony in that scenario, congratulations. Nothing in this world is easy. Certainly not finding a bog that until this point had eluded everyone. I was privileged to tour Lydick Bog with my partner Kathleen Thompson a couple of weeks ago. Our guides were Steve Sass and Amanda Smith. They co-founded Indiana Nature LLC, which includes the educational initiative Indiana Nature. They are also behind the popular Facebook Group IN Nature.

By the way, Sass is one of the three people who slogged through the woods to first identify Lydick Bog in the 21st century. And the organization that stepped up to preserve the area was the Shirley Heinze Land Trust. The bog is located in an area called the St Joseph County Kettle Lakes Corridor just west of South Bend, Indiana. Those lakes, arranged north to south, were created by receding glaciers eight thousand years ago. Though just yards south of U.S. 20, Lydick Bog remained hidden, despite a couple centuries of development. Sass will tell us the story. Watch the building of the brand new deck into the bog here.

Indiana’s natural diversity

Smith and Sass will also talk about celebrating Indiana’s natural heritage. Their work focuses on a lot more than just bogs. Basically, they are committed to combating ecological illiteracy, while revealing the diversity of northwest Indiana. The Great American Indiana Nature (GAIN) projects focus on Lepidoptera, natural history and science resources, trees, and wildflowers. Additionally,the two are former chapter presidents of the Indiana Native Plant Society. Sass served in the North chapter and Smith in Central Chapter.

On today’s show, we’ll show some of the video taken at Lydick Bog on our recent visit. We’ll look at some of the flora and fauna on site. (We saw a scarlet tanager!) You’re going to be amazed at what’s going on in northwest Indiana. And maybe you’ll discover a wild area yourself.