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News & Blog

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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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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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Accessible Trail and Deck Coming Soon!

ACRES Land Trust has started work on a new accessible trail and deck at the Tom and Jane Dustin Nature Preserve in Huntertown! If you’ve visited the preserve recently, you might have noticed that a portion of the existing trail is blocked off where our stewardship team is clearing the way for a .25-mile loop ...

  • 10/15/2021
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Celebrate Earth Day by restoring local land

“Restore Our Earth” is the theme of Earth Day 2021, and you have an opportunity to do just that here in your community! Together with our members, ACRES Land Trust protects more than 7,200 acres of natural and working land in northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio and southern Michigan. From planting trees to removing non-native, invasive ...

  • 04/16/2021
  • 2 Comment(s)

Herbarium provides a glimpse into the past

ACRES protects more than land. We also work to protect the history of our land donors. Their stories and artifacts provide a glimpse into the past, an explanation of who they were and how they cared for and loved the land before ACRES. Join local journalist Kevin Kilbane as he uncovers the story of a ...

  • 12/16/2020
  • 1 Comment(s)

160-year-old barn finds new home

HUNTERTOWN – A 160-year-old barn in northwest Allen County is finding a new home in DeKalb County, where it will stand as a tribute to the area’s agricultural heritage. ACRES Land Trust acquired the barn as part of a bequest from the late Dr. Frederick Mackel. The land is part of the 34-acre Mackel Nature ...

  • 11/09/2020
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Tom and Jane Dustin built a legacy from this home.

“Tom and Jane Dustin built a legacy from this home,” the bold headline at the top of the commemorative panel reads. As you stand among the tall trees, listening to the music of the preserve, you can see that legacy is thriving still today. The Dustins helped launch ACRES Land Trust. Inspired by the budding ...

  • 10/10/2018
  • 2 Comment(s)

Public invited to help ACRES Land Trust plant 200 trees at Blue Cast Springs nature preserve in honor of Hoosier Bicentennial

On Saturday, April 23, ACRES, with help from friends, families and neighbors, will begin replanting more than 20,000 native trees, reforesting 36 acres of cropland on its Blue Cast Springs nature preserve near Woodburn, Indiana. Using dibble bars, flat shovel-length ergonomic tools provided by the land trust, and expert guidance, volunteers of all ages are invited ...

  • 04/23/2016
  • 2 Comment(s)

Blue Cast Springs History

By Tom Castaldi Travel east nineteen miles from Fort Wayne into Maumee Township on U.S. 24 heading for the Indiana-Ohio state line, and you’ll pass near Blue Cast Springs. Back in 1901, New Haven resident Henry Schnelker was attracted to an 87-acre plot with a flowing mineral spring, and he decided to purchase the land. ...

  • 10/30/2015
  • 8 Comment(s)

From much-anticipated preservation to recreation, Spring Lake Woods and Bog to open to public

The land is protected. Species are inventoried; footbridges installed. Eager explorers are standing by. Spring Lake Woods and Bog, a 107-acre northwest Allen County nature preserve protected by ACRES Land Trust, is about to open – nearly fifty years after being identified as a significant natural area by preservation experts. To celebrate its preservation and the ...

  • 08/29/2015
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ACRES Land Trust

ACRES Land Trust is a member-supported nonprofit dedicated to protecting natural and working lands in northeast Indiana, southern Michigan and northwest Ohio. More than 2,000 ACRES members make it possible to protect these areas and offer trail systems for free public use, open dawn to dusk daily.

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  • 1802 Chapman Road
    PO Box 665
    Huntertown, Indiana 46748
  • (260) 637-2273
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© 2023 ACRES Land Trust | Photos: A swirling pattern frozen in Davis Fisher Creek at McNabb-Walter Nature Preserve in Allen County by Jenny Weatherford | A Virginia opossum perched in a tree at Wildwood in Kosciusko County by Ralph Campbell