The Natural Bloomington Blog

Even with my newly inspired natural history perspective on Southern Indiana, it's still hard to grasp the fact that the Ohio River bluffs we hiked along on Saturday had their genesis some 350 million years ago, when the region was at the bottom of a shallow, equatorial sea.

That these massive, ragged, perpendicular cliffs were carved from limestone by nothing more than the movement of melting ice and running water, in less than a million years, is as overwhelming. The Ohio Valley began forming when the last glacier redirected Midwest drainage patterns from north to south roughly 700,000 years ago.

But those are the geological realities I contemplated hiking through the Mouth of the Blue River Nature Preserve at the O'Bannon Woods State Park -- where the state's most beautiful river meets its mightiest -- as well as three other Ohio Valley nature preserves in Harrison County -- Post Oak-Cedar, Hayswood and Mosquito Creek.

Time and energy are at a premium these days, but in the past seven days I've walked as close as I could to the two rivers that most define the state of Indiana -- the Ohio and the Wabash -- walking and driving over landscapes that, in recent geologic time, have been 250 million to 400 million years in the making.
 
Last Sunday felt like a speed date with nature down in the Madison area, checking off of the to-shoot list the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge, Clifty Falls State Park, Chelsea Flatwoods Nature Preserve, and Hardy Lake State Recreation Area, all in one day.  Not near enough time at any of them, but such are the creative-time constraints when school is in session.
 
At 50,000 acres, Big Oaks is the largest wildlife preserve in the state, some six times bigger than its U.S. Fish & Wildlife sister to the north and west, the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge. And the biodiversity there ranks among the state's best. With more than 200 bird species, it's a National Audubon Society-designated Important Bird Area. Endangered Indiana bats hang with their young there in summer.

It's not surprising that, for the first time in longer than I can recall, there isn't anything new in the Natueal Bloomington website offerings. Just about all my energy last week was devoted to my 241 new journalism protoges, which even required a couple mandatory night-time appearances.The Natural Bloomington project slipped off the to-do list.

We did, however, nail down some details for an Oct. 17 ecotour to the Goose Pond Fish & Wildlife Area and Greene-Sullivan State Forest, The trip will be organized through the Endwright Center and is open to anyone, regardless of age. Rural Transit will provide the buses. Garden Villa will provide the food. The ecological diversity and fall colors will be courtesy of Nature.

Other details are still being worked out. The wetlands and forests in that part of the state have unique stories, and we hope to have a naturalist or two along to help share them. I have been in contact with the property managers on Goose Pond on other matters and hope to have one of them join or at least meet with us when we get there.
 

With summer travel freedom approaching an inexorable end, I literally traversed the state the past seven days, from the strip-mined Southwestern Lowlands just this side of Illinois to some of the state's highest elevations in the Switzerland Hills just this side of Ohio, with a glimpse of subterranean Indiana in between.

Last Sunday's excursion with my friend and adviser Amara was designed for a leisurely afternoon in Lawrence County, from which I have posted photo albums on the Jeremy Keith Oakley Nature Preserve and Buddha Karst Nature Preserve.

Oakley is another Sycamore Land Trust property, a 15-acre field, woods, and creek ravine that is a living memorial from Kathy Oakley to her son, Jeremy, to provide a place for people -- especially children -- to understand the fragility and value of nature “as a haven to all spirits (to) enrich the human soul.”