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Research Update: How One Wildflower Responds to Environmental Change

In 2021, we shared the story of Emma Boehm, a doctoral student at Indiana University, who was beginning research on blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia verna). She wanted to learn how populations of the wildflower respond to environmental changes. Her research included studying a phenomenon called “phenotypic plasticity,” an ability to quickly change traits without changing the ...

  • 02/28/2023
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A Closer Look at Grass Lake

Since acquiring Grass Lake in 2018, ACRES has learned about several rare and endangered species living—and thriving—here at one of our most unique nature preserves. To better understand what makes this LaGrange County property unlike anywhere else in the state of Indiana, ACRES Communications Manager Bridgett Hernandez reached out to two botanists to learn more ...

  • 10/12/2022
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Into the thick of it

By Reena Ramos, ACRES Outreach Manager Each step into the bog meant a full commitment for leg muscles. It was like walking through brownie batter. Pausing to look up could mean a face full of sphagnum moss for those who didn’t watch their footing. I scanned the landscape of dark water with its clumps of ...

  • 09/13/2022
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One of Indiana’s Precious Few

By Chris Fairfield This article is part of a series highlighting preserves where ACRES will retire trails as part of our comprehensive plan to update visitor amenities at nature preserves. For a complete list of retiring trails and public access updates, visit acreslandtrust.org/raisingourstandards. Walking up the narrow entrance trail of Glennwood Nature Preserve, I anticipate something great and ...

  • 03/01/2022
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ACRES Member Q&A with Shondell Hobbs

What made you want to support ACRES?I always thought there were no good places to hike here in northern Indiana, but a few years ago, I found out we had some waterfalls in the area. I visited my first ACRES property, Kokiwanee, and then a few weeks later went to Hathaway Preserve at Ross Run. ...

  • 01/20/2022
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Restoring Reciprocity

By Chris Fairfield This article is part of a series highlighting preserves where ACRES will retire trails as part of our comprehensive plan to update visitor amenities at nature preserves. For a complete list of retiring trails and public access updates, visit acreslandtrust.org/raisingourstandards. Every day the Earth presents and sustains abundant ecological gifts. Author Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer ...

  • 12/06/2021
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Detecting wildlife in the Cedar Creek Corridor

ACRES nature preserves provide researchers and citizen scientists with opportunities to study the natural world around us. By allowing scientists to work on ACRES properties, we gain knowledge from their findings that makes us better-informed stewards of the land. Each day, these protected places serve as a setting for learning and discovery. In the coming ...

  • 11/15/2021
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Capturing Changing Seasons

Local artist Gwen Gutwein has gifted ACRES with four oil paintings depicting the changing seasons at Mackel Nature Preserve in Allen County’s Cedar Creek Corridor. The paintings capture the confluence of Little Cedar Creek into Cedar Creek in the distance. Gutwein, an ACRES member, created these works over the past year. “ACRES is such an ...

  • 11/11/2021
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Recording Bat Calls

ACRES nature preserves provide researchers and citizen scientists with opportunities to study the natural world around us. By allowing scientists to work on ACRES properties, we gain knowledge from their findings that makes us better-informed stewards of the land. Each day, these protected places serve as a setting for learning and discovery. In the coming ...

  • 10/28/2021
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The Turning of the Year

A note from the ACRES Quarterly editor ACRES Quarterly Editor Carol Roberts reflects on the changing of the seasons, encouraging readers to connect with nature this fall. What changes signal “the turning of the year” for you? As a child, I loved hearing my grandparents talk about “the turning of the year.” I understood this ...

  • 10/28/2021
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