Looking at Noble County today, what we see is not what the Indians saw, it is not what the explorers saw. It is, for the most part, not even what the first settlers saw. Where once were marshes, woods and bits of prairie, there is agricultural land – think corn and soybeans and barley, along with industrial development, towns and a whole lot of parking lots.

There are big parking lots at Tractor Supply Co. on the north side of U.S. 6 in Kendallville and to the south side at Rural King; they are designed so rainwater and snowmelt flow to drains. We are familiar with such things; ironically, the paving at these agriculture-focused stored is urban, but just between them – on the east side of Kammerer Road – there is an entrance to a plot of land that is not only “rural”, it is natural. It is, in a phrase, nature left to “just be”.

This particular 50-acre spot is the Detering Preserve, owned and maintained for public use by ACRES Land Trust. Jason Kimmel, Executive Director of ACRES, says that it is used quite a bit by the people in the surrounding neighborhood who come in and walk. However, he says that most of the people in Kendallville are unaware that this area, which is open to the public for hiking and nature study, is even there.
ACRES owns many of pieces of property that serve, basically, as an outdoor museum. Kissel says, “Nature is what ACRES is all about and not only does it preserve and restore areas, it provides a doorway to seeing the land in its natural state . . . It is a classroom in the history of the terrain and botanical past and a gallery of living pictures of wildflowers, trees and geographical features.”

According to Kissel, ACRES has over 4,000 acres in 14 counties, 800 of them in Noble County. Those acres are spread between a total of nine areas, five of which are open to the public from dawn to dusk – subject to usage rules set by ACRES and with the prime directive, so to speak, being: Do nothing that will disturb the property.

The Detering Preserve  – mentioned above and bordering Round Lake – was donated by Ester Detering in 1986. The acreage had been a vegetable farm and now the fields are returning to hardwood forest. A loop trail with spurs gives access to the wetland area by the lake.

Once again Kissel uses the phrase “what we are all about” as he talks about Detering. He states, “If we had not taken this land, this would have been parking lots right now, I guarantee you. Some sort of business would be here because it is surrounded (by businesses). So, really that is the idea of ACRES  – to preserve this land before it is really all gone. (Detering) is a nice example of the area being built up all around, but this (section) will never change.”

The story of ACRES is not just land returning to the way it once was; it is also a story about people. Kissel says, “We are seeing a lot that people are being so disconnected form the natural world that they don’t know where their foods come from, what trees really are. A lot of people are even scared of a natural setting. It’s really a shame; they don’t want to go into the woods.”

To help people reconnect with nature, ACRES is conducting programs to get people out into the woods and to educate them about what they are seeing once they are there. Kissel assures those unsure about venturing out: “The trails are well-worn and well-marked and people don’t have to have a fear of getting lost.” In fact, once introduced to the trails through Indiana’s natural setting, some people form groups and walk for enjoyment and fitness. Kissel says, “They are called wild walkers.” It sounds like a “cool” idea – this combination of two of today’s hot topics – the environment and health.

Speaking to the intentions of ACRES, Kissel says, “We are very serious about preserving those natural areas because they are becoming fewer and fewer – especially some of the geological ones. You can’t grow that. You find a remnant of prairie, an intact wetland that hasn’t been changed in the last 100 years and sometimes you will see the original seed banks still intact under old buildings, native prairie grasses after having been dormant for so long – those things excite us.”

ACRES has a criteria for what land they will accept into the program which Kissel summarizes, “We want to obtain a property because there is something unique there – the botanical resources or the geological resources or something that is outstanding in that property.”

As for acquiring natural areas in today’s economic era, Kissel says, “We have a lot of partners that help with costs: The State of Indiana helps kick in with license plate money (all those blue plates – your taxes at work), nature concerns, private donations, membership  . . . and we hit local groups and bigger businesses.”

ACRES also gets properties through donation and included in such agreements is the assurance to the owner/donor that it will never be sold. Kissel adds that if for some reason ACRES would dissolve, the land reverts back to the State’s nature conservancy; all of the properties would be preserved forever.

About donating, he says, “It’s a neat thing because if you give land to ACRES, you know that it is always going to be there; that is the beauty of thing because they know they can have their family’s name on that farm or piece of property forever.”

In addition to programs listed in the quarterly publication, ACRES also has a radio station program on NPR stations in Indiana called Nature Trust. Kissel says, “It’s just three-minute segments on a nature topic – entertaining and kind of sarcastic little clips”

People can become members of ACRES for  $15 for seniors and students, $25 for individuals and $40 for a family. You can also choose to pay more and be a level of patron of the organization.

Being a member has perks. This year ACRES scheduled a bus tour of Noble County, open to members first. It highlighted two or three of the preserves, and included stops at Gene Stratton-Porter and the Windmill Museum. Those on the tour dined at Fashion Farm.

As a native Hoosier from a long, long line of native Hoosiers, I expressed to Jason Kissel that, well, gee, Indiana never seemed much of a romantic, exotic, adventurous place to me. Sometimes I have thought of ancestors and visualized shaking their spirits and asking, “Why didn’t you keep going . . . to Colorado, Montana, Oregon . . . California?”

Kissel chuckled and said, “There area a lot of unique things in Indiana; we have one preserve that has 13 waterfalls and the state has more native orchid species than Hawaii . . . so it’s those neat little things if you pay attention.”

***

Detering is not the only special place that is tucked away.  Art Hammer Wetlands Nature Preserve is west of Rome City on Waldron Lake. This land (373 acres) was gifted to ACRES during the years 1986 to 2004. Acres’ largest preserve and includes wetlands, a swamp forest, a small lake and the shoreline of the Elkhart River. Two public parking areas serve the park and an access for canoes to the river is available.

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I’ve probably been writing all my life; I think I started with finding ways to choose the right words to reflect what I was experiencing before I even knew how to write. I believe I instinctively wanted to be able to remember things with vibrance and an exactitude that the English language can provide. It is a rich language and  for that I am grateful.

I wrote a lot in Cincinnati, Ohio, first as a columnist, telling people’s stories and then writing the content for a weekly supplement that addressed major developments in Cincinnati’s  philanthropic, artistic, medical, public institutions, such as museums and the zoo . . . and, actually, on and on.

I interviewed CEO’s of major corporations, including Procter & Gamble and Kroger.’s. In fact, I interviewed college deans and opera directors and all sort of  – cliché alert – movers and shakers. I once interviewed a head administrator, a priest at Xavier University, who wrote my editor to say that I was the only writer who had ever quoted him  correctly.

That’s because I always recorded the interviews. You can’t be careless with people’s words – especially when they are doing you the favor of sharing personal thoughts. And I always let them see the article before it went to print. The editors hated that; but I insisted.

When I came to Kendallville it was to be close to my parents since I am an only child and my father was in failing health. I needed to be closer to him. But I had found a real satisfaction in finding out things about people and sharing them. I always remember the fighter pilot who was shot down and spent time in a POW camp. One day when he was out working on his house, two of his neighbors came over and said they wanted to shake his hand and say thank you for what he had done.

And so I started writing little articles here – and found myself once again stumbling into stories of dedication and bravery and compassion.

I wrote of CEO types here as well; in fact, I interviewed every new president of Parkview Noble with the exception of the most recent one. I remember John Hatcher talking about working in the boiler room in a navy ship and giving it all  he had; I remember Dave Hunter talking about losing his father to a heart attack in a small community hospital and feeling drawn to help people get care and to see that patient’s families were treated with deep respect.

I have written of D-Day soldiers, the moveable Vietnam Wall – and remember being touched by the instructions sent to the local sponsors not to let the older veterans work too hard. I have written about outstanding students and children who are ill.

It is easy for a writer to slant things, just look at political ads, and I took pride in telling a fair and true story. Even if I was not writing about big city VIP’s, I still recorded everything. It wasn’t fun transcribing; it took a lot of time. But it was necessary for the nature and accuracy of the story.

It was the right thing to do, and that is something my father always drilled into me. You can make an honest mistake, but you must always try to do what you know is the right thing.

I miss the intimate stories; it was like posting pictures of nature on the internet.

I came across a batch about Kendallville on my hard drive and I’m going to share them.  Because you don’t sing a song only once.

 

I read a couple of crime books this week and for the most part both of the books progressed with intricate little plots and I wondered just what the answers would be. One book dismissed a subplot with an Oh, well, that was weird but it happened. The other pulled the two perpetrators out of the air in the last few pages, leaving all other suspects in the dust.

And you know what I am going to do? I am actually going to investigate questions on the Internet referring to any following books that might reveal what the unexplained weird phenomenon was. Because I am that crazy.