Sycamore Land Trust

~by Jim Eagleman

If someone mentions the word corridor to you, what do you think? A hallway between two rooms? A pathway leading from one area into another? Do you ever think of a corridor being outdoors?

They can exist between two parcels of land, uniting them, creating a natural connection to allow birds and animals a passageway. This is one of the projects, both on-going, and historic, of the Sycamore Land Trust, a nonprofit organization founded in 1990 to preserve the beauty, health and diversity of southern Indiana’s natural landscape. With a strategic land conservation and education mission, the organization has protected 119 properties totaling 10,126 acres to date in several southcentral Indiana counties.

Sycamore Land Trust is an option for Hoosiers who are considering selling or donating their private parcels of land for future uses and preservation. Landowners know the surest way to protect any parcel, wetland, forest, farmland, or small landholding, is to own it. But if the time has come to do something different, family priorities of course receiving top consideration, there is the land trust option.

Sales are in keeping with current land values and payments to the owner are always competitive. To many, knowing private land can now be added to other tracts nearby, creating a corridor, is comforting. Or the parcel could be used as a nature preserve if something unique and of natural interest is found there, possibly set aside with trails and access for others to enjoy. The owner can be sure that no development will ever take place. This can be reassuring, knowing their love of the land will continue and it is preserved forever.

The work by Sycamore Land Trust is on-going, every day, as land conservation employees and conservation stewards work to improve each property. Their work, for example in the Bean Blossom Creek area, east of Morgan-Monroe State Forest in Monroe County, continues as they work with landowners in the area. Their long-held vision of an important ecologic corridor through the Bean Blossom Creek watershed is becoming a reality. By connecting tracts of natural land together they are providing a contiguous space for plants and animals to thrive. These corridors are well-recognized as important avenues for species to move in a broader, protected range of habitat, a function that will only become more crucial as climate change drives shifts in the habitats of many species.

Imagine travel lanes along streams, woodland borders, ravines, even fencerows allowing birds and animals to move about unaltered, no interruptions of roads or developments. You begin to see the value of corridors and why Sycamore tries to keep them intact.

We’ve all seen our share of roadkill animals: turtles, deer carcasses, flatted opossums and the like. This casualty is what happens when animals travel across busy roads. Road signs alert drivers that they are entering heavily traveled wildlife routes. They can help as traffic slows down anticipating some animal, but a natural corridor is better. Establishing natural corridors has helped us live more compatibly with animals.

When corridors include streams and wetlands, the conservation effort becomes even more important. These areas act as dynamic crossroads in ecosystems, providing a space where water, soil, energy, and organisms interact. This intersection drives essential functions that promote resilience, such as cycling nutrients, filtering contaminants, supporting biodiversity, and regulating streamflow.

The importance of these ecological corridors has driven Sycamore Land Trust’s focus on land conservation in the Bean Blossom Creek area for almost 30 years. And the conservation of the local natural features has downstream significance as well, The White River, into which the Bean Blossom is a major tributary, supplies water to over a million Hoosiers.

None of the accomplishments of the SLT would be possible without the support from generous members. By creating a corridor in the Bean Blossom Creek watershed, and protecting the diverse ecosystems and species in it, they are creating a more connected and resilient future, for both us and the environment.

Hats off to the fine folks who work SLT and their conscientious members; and why not hike the Bean Blossom Creek conservation area this summer to see for yourself what a great natural area has been saved and managed for all of us to enjoy. You’ll be impressed.