The Leaflet, September - October 2003

In my last column as Sassafras' President, I would like to review what we, your board, have accomplished over the past two years and what challenges are ahead. Most importantly, the "we" is more crucial to the success of SAS than "I" as President. Sassafras' life and survival directly reflect the unselfish and shared efforts of all board and general members. Major decisions are made by discussion, consultation, and with consensus. Your board feels this is the optimal route for decisions that are reasonable and durable.

In my recent annual report to National Audubon, I was able to trumpet the continued success of our field outings and library educational programs. In addition to providing frequent opportunities for learning and experiencing first-hand the great outdoors, we have noticed of late a pleasing increase in attendance locally and from folks outside SAS' seven county area. As fall approaches, it will be time for the owl banding team to set up shop in Yellowwood State Forest for a second season of tracking Northern Sawwhet Owls in migration. This is precisely the type of project that fits SAS well and we will continue our involvement. Our bimonthly newsletter, The Leaflet, has grown to include an enjoyable variety of topics, authors and field notes/trip reports.

About a year ago, Sassafras' board made the decision to accept an offer from the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) to join this public/private partnership as a scholarship member. We made a well-received presentation this spring on the close relationship between environmental health and business prospects. The BEDC has renewed our membership for 2003-04. In mid-August Conservation Chair Jess Gwinn and I wrote a guest editorial for The Bloomington Herald-Times about the oil drilling controversy in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. This served as a follow-up to our spring program on the Arctic Refuge and as a response to Rep. Steve Buyer's dismissal in a Herald-Times interview of the biological significance of the ANWR's coastal plain. We hope to use this article to interest Rep. Buyer in presenting a SAS program on his ideas about energy and the need for a comprehensive national energy policy.

While Sassafras Audubon has continued to thrive over the past two years, our small, all-volunteer chapter faces significant challenges in the next several years. Financial support from National Audubon in the form of sharing local members’ dues has never been more uncertain. SAS' board will continue to search for ways to increase our financial self-sufficiency for routine expenses and to grow a permanent endowment. We also are concerned about the "graying" of our membership and the need to attract younger and active members into the SAS fold.

In my tenure as President, it has become patently clear that for SAS to remain viable, we need to examine who we are and what we can and cannot do, given our size, all-volunteer structure, and in light of the many other local environmental groups. To that end, your board began the process of strategic planning at our annual retreat in July (see “SAS Looks to the Future”). We will try to define who and what SAS is and should be, what is the future of our relationship with National Audubon, the merits of paying SAS' President a modest monthly stipend, and what financial and organizational steps are necessary to survive long-term. These issues will not be easily or quickly resolved but we can assure the SAS membership that your board is focused on these challenges. Finally, I sincerely thank present and former board members who have made my two years as SAS' leader enjoyable, challenging, and educational.

While modern Hoosiers may never see the Black Marsh of Greene County that the surveyors of 1811 saw (see Jess Gwinn’s article in the July/August Leaflet), we may soon get a taste of what Goose Pond lowlands looked like at that time thanks to the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s reclamation of the area. More importantly though, migratory waterfowl and shorebirds, as well as endemic wetland plant and animal species, will be returning to an area that we’ve borrowed from them for the past 150 years.

Currently, restoration work is under way on the 5,900 acres of Goose Pond as well as on an additional 1,200 acres a few miles to the east known as Beehunter Marsh. The project (known officially as the Wilder Wetland Restoration Project) is part of an easement agreement signed in 2000 between the federal government and Maurice Wilder, who is the owner of the property.

According to Dan Luczynski, an NRCS biologist working on the project, the goal of the restoration is to return the lowland area, as closely as possible, to its historic pre-settlement natural state. So far, this has included plantings of native upland and lowland prairie grasses including Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem and Side Oats Gramma Grass as well as several dozen wildflower species and some tree plantings as well. This spring, the engineering aspects of the project began to become apparent as agricultural drainage tiles have been excavated from the ground and groups of impoundments have been constructed. The effects of the new “wetness” of the area were immediately evident to those who regularly visit like Bloomington birders Lee Sterrenberg and Don Whitehead. They found hundreds of migratory ducks and shorebirds at Goose Pond this spring as well as a few rare shorebirds for Indiana, including Black-necked Stilts and Wilson’s Phalaropes. This spring Luczynski also noted the greatest concentration of waterfowl that he has seen since his earliest visits to the area.

Ultimately, the amount of water that will be allowed to collect in Goose Pond will be determined by the fate of State Highway 59, which bisects the property. According to Denise Held, the Wilder Project manager, in order to most closely mimic historical conditions, a large part of the area’s acreage should be under one large, shallow impoundment of water. Currently, achieving this goal would be impossible due to the location of the highway. However, the Indiana Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are working on plans for the highway that will probably include elevating it, and also elevating County Road 200S. This may make for a better wetland in the long run, but it will probably add years to the project’s final completion date.

Perhaps the only real question remaining in Goose Pond’s future regards who will own the wetland and who will be allowed to use it. While agricultural activity will never occur again in the area according to the easement, Maurice Wilder still owns the property and ultimately he will decide questions of ownership and access. Wilder has indicated that he wants to sell the property. He has also indicated that he would like for Goose Pond’s flora and fauna to be enjoyed by the public. At a July 15 meeting in Linton which included Wilder, state, federal, and local officials and a representative of Senator Evan Bayh, nearly all were in agreement that the best future of Goose Pond would be as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge that would be open to multiple uses such as environmental education, wildlife observation, fishing, hunting, and photography.

As with most ventures in our current economic state, finances are now the impediment to making a wildlife refuge happen. The state is not currently able to either come up with the necessary funds to purchase the property, nor is it able to make the kind of payments to the county that would make up for lost tax revenue. Wilder also has an inquiry from an undisclosed private hunting club that would like to purchase the property. He is also considering maintaining ownership and creating a private hunting club similar to one that he owns in South Dakota. Wilder has indicated that he is willing to wait for a period of time to see if the state can find a solution to the financial problem.

The question is, how long will Maurice Wilder wait? Goose Pond is sure to become an important migratory stopover for waterfowl and shorebirds, but it remains to be seen whether or not anyone will be there to observe the spectacle.

For the past ten years an important component of the SAS education mission has been to provide environmental education materials to area teachers through the Audubon Adventures program. For the past five years Visteon Automotive Systems of Bedford has been a large contributor to this program.

Since first sponsoring classrooms in 1999, Visteon has enabled approximately 2000 students in our region to receive Audubon Adventures newsletters. For the upcoming school year, 23 classrooms will benefit from Visteon’s generosity.

Published by the National Audubon Society, Audubon Adventures is an educational resource kit for third through sixth grade teachers. This program increases children’s awareness of the natural systems of the earth and it fosters a sense of stewardship for the environment. Through its well-designed activities, Audubon Adventures enables our local SAS chapter to provide quality educational outreach to schools in our seven-county area.

Thank you, Visteon, for your generous and much appreciated support of Audubon Adventures!

If you would like more information about Audubon Adventures, or if would like to sponsor a classroom, please contact Kristina Lindborg at klindbor@mccsc.edu or 323-8233.

History

The Lake Griffy area is jointly owned by Bloomington and Indiana University. The city portion is managed by Bloomington's Parks and Recreation Dept (349-3700) while IU's Nature Preserve is directed by Prof. Keith Clay (www.indiana.edu/~preserve). The area was originally privately owned, with farms and home sites along the valley floor and field and pastures on the ridge tops. Failure of early attempts to provide city water led to a private corporation buying land in the Griffy Creek watershed and constructing a dam in 1924. The lake and surrounding drainage area were gradually acquired by the city into the 1930's. Lake Griffy was the principal source of water for Bloomington until 1953 when Lake Lemon was built. Griffy continued as a partial source of city water until 1996 when the obsolete treatment plant was closed. During several droughts IU acquired land in the Griffy watershed and built the small University Lake in 1911 for a water supply independent of the city. The lake remains part of the IU Nature Preserve.

Lake Griffy is the second largest municipally owned site in Indiana, exceeded only by Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis. The area is 1200 acres, of which the lake is 110 acres. IU's Nature Preserve that adjoins on the southeast part of the city property is 180 acres. This entire area is open for recreational walking. The wide variety of habitats within the Griffy area results in a quite diverse range of flora and fauna for such a small area. For example, a floristic survey (Thiele, 1982) recorded 202 herbaceous plants, 76 trees, 13 shrubs, 10 vines, 16 ferns and fern allies, and 5 plant parasites.

Geology

The hills that surround Lake Griffy are composed of rocks from the Paleozoic Era, about 350 million years old. The bedrock consists primarily of massive to well-bedded siltstones composed of quartz particles smaller than sand grains yet coarser than clay particles. The siltstones are well cemented, cohesive, and not very porous, making an ideal container for lake water. Earlier lakes constructed for the city water were sited farther west in the county on limestone terrains cavernous with sinkholes. They did not hold water and were unreliable as a water supply. Lake Griffy contains 400 million gallons of water and could supply Bloomington with two million gallons per day.

The siltstones are the upper part of the Borden Group of rocks in Indiana. These rocks are 600-800 feet thick and were formed as parts of large marine deltas into shallow waters by large west-flowing rivers. These Borden deltas began forming in eastern Kentucky, spanned across southern and central Indiana and ended in central Illinois. The rocks contain abundant marine fossils in places. Burrows and tracks of soft-bodied marine worms and crustaceans are most common. Limy skeletons from a variety of marine invertebrates occur locally, but not in the Griffy area.

The siltstones form hilly, rugged countryside in southern Indiana, sometimes known as Knobstone country or the Norman Upland. The land consists of long, narrow parallel ridges with flat tops, steep sides, and narrow valleys between. Soils are thin, easily eroded, and unfit for agriculture. Above the siltstones, there is a series of limestone formations that crop out on hilltops only in the west part of Griffy. The limestones contain geodes of quartz and calcite crystals that grew in the rock while it was still soft sediment and unconsolidated. Where the limestone has been removed by erosion in the eastern sections, the geodes persist in the overlying soils and eventually wash into the creeks. In the southwest part of the property, the limestone forms a series of small cliffs and waterfalls in side ravines. These limestone cliffs support a number of plant species not found elsewhere on the property.

Plants

Early studies of the Griffy area by IU botanists divided the site into eight major plant habitats, each with characteristic flora. The LAKE holds floating algae, pondweed and invasive Eurasian milfoil, the latter especially pervasive in the summer months. At the WATER's edge, there are various sedges, rushes, and grasses. SEASONAL WETLANDS in the east end of Lake Griffy offer cattails, bulrush and black willow. OLD FIELDS and PASTURES, especially west of North Dunn Street and below the dam, have various grasses, and along Griffy Creek red cedar, dogwood, redbud, milkweed, and goldenrod. More advanced reverting fields in the east part of the Ridge and Creek Trails include sassafras, eunymous, redbud, and large colonies of club moss or ground pine. MATURE RIDGE TOPS and SLOPES are marked by beech, sugar maple, tulip poplar, walnut and elm trees. On ridge tops and slopes timbered prior to 1924, the SECONDARY TREES of shagbark hickory, red, white and black oak dominate. STEEP RAVINES hold a variety of ferns and common spring ephemeral wildflowers. In the old, open flat-bottomed RAVINE MOUTHS and STREAM EDGES are an interesting variety of herbaceous plants and spring ephemerals. Common brambles, greenbriar, nettles, yucca, and early spring daffodils may occur in cultivated or home sites.

Animals

Some of the animals seen or heard in the Griffy Lake area include raccoon, possum, red and gray squirrel, fox, and chipmunk. Deer, including a few rare albino individuals, are common and coyotes are increasingly present. The area around the causeway parking lot and east to the adjacent creek valley are well known to birders as a spring and fall migrant trap for neotropical songbirds. Ruffed Grouse are present but rare. Wild Turkey are seen on both sides of the lake. Waterfowl and to a lesser extent shorebirds are present as residents or in migration, including the numerous Canada Geese, herons, ducks and kingfishers. Great Horned, Barred and Eastern Screech owls are more easily heard than seen. Several species of frogs inhabit the east end of the lake and adjacent cattail marsh and are especially obvious in the spring with their mating calls.

Gary Lane is a retired IU Geologist and is known for his extensive memory of limericks.

Jo Hargesheimer and I set forth on our annual early July bird outing with the Outer Banks in mind. We went south, crossing the Appalachians during sporadic thunderstorms caused by a tropical storm coming up from Texas. It rained off and on throughout the five-day trip. The first destination was the Carolina Sandhills NWR to look for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Bachman’s sparrows, and other inland birds. We found the sparrows at the first stop in the long-leaf pine woods, where we parked next to a kiosk to get our bearings. A male hopped up on a low branch while singing to give us a good look. Despite locating several marked trees where they nest and roost, we didn’t find the woodpeckers until we got to the Croatan National Forest. The Francis Marion NF was once home to the largest colony of RCW in the country, but many of the trees fell during Hurricane Hugo.

We enjoyed fresh peaches and the views of mossy live oaks as we headed for the coast and the Santee River Delta. Carolinabirds listserv inquries had indicated this was the best bet north of Charleston for finding Swallow-tailed Kite. We searched the marshes and trees and thought we had glimpse of one as we were walking a trail through trees along a levee. Little crabs were scuttling all over the ground and the mosquitoes were fierce.

Huntington Beach State Park is a wonderful little park without a lot of traffic. We saw an alligator basking near the road and enjoyed all kinds of wading birds in the lagoon. There were Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons, and Glossy and White Ibis. Near the nature center, we found another target species, a pair of Painted Buntings at the feeders. Following the coast north was slow going through Myrtle Beach.

Exploring the Croatan NF, we found Red-cockaded Woodpeckers calling and feeding near a colony or their trees. We stopped at several swampy areas looking for Swainson’s Warbler, but couldn’t hear much over the rain and dripping leaves. The road led to Great Lake, and we walked around a bit to see what was there. A little brown bird, obviously a warbler, was flitting about in the low vegetation. We had found a Swainson’s!

Turning our focus to the coast, we saw lots of terns: Sandwich, Least, Common, Forster’s, and Royal; and gulls: Laughing, Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed. We couldn’t locate Wilson’s Plover, but there were a few shorebirds, including Short-billed Dowitcher, Sanderling, Killdeer, and Willet. We took a ferry to Ocracoke Island and another to Hatteras as we continued north through the Banks. There were no pelagic trips available during the week we planned to visit, so we’ll have to go back some day. At Pea Island we walked to an observation platform, but didn’t see anything we hadn’t already found. The best spot was a small pool right next to the highway, which attracted a constantly changing variety of waders, shorebirds, and terns. We saw a family of Black Terns there and found Black-necked Stilt in a marsh to the north.

All told, we saw 95 species, including 4 lifers for each of us, and traveled 2270 miles, having left Monday morning and arriving back home at noon Friday. We spent about $300 total, only eating out twice. We never found good places for BBQ or seafood when we had the time to eat it. We saw pine woods, pocosins, swamps, marshes, and beaches. There were deer, a gray fox, squirrels, a green snake, turtles, cotton fields, crabs, lighthouses, and boats, magnolia trees, sourwood, marsh pinks, and wood nymphs, stock car tracks, amusements parks, military bases, and old plantations. We got stuck in the sand, pelted by rain, watched crashing waves pound a beach, and sat on a deck listening to bluegrass music. It was a trip to remember.

Members of the SAS Board met at President Bob Kissel’s house in July to begin the process of strategic planning. This plan will be an effective way to guide SAS in the coming few years as we face changing membership needs, financial uncertainty, and varied opportunities for affecting environmental quality in our area.

Strategic planning is an on-going process of formulating a mission, identifying issues and trends, devising goals, developing an action plan to meet those goals, and reviewing progress after the plan has been implemented. The first part of the process requires taking inventory of where we are now. The National Audubon Society mission and SAS constitution were reviewed, with the group largely agreeing with these principles.

SAS members live in Monroe, Morgan, Greene, Owen, Brown, Lawrence, Johnson, and Bartholomew counties and The Leaflet is mailed to about 900 addresses. There may be about 500 who are current members. The board consists of 12-13 people, there are about 10 other active volunteers, and programs are attended by about 400 people per year. About 200-250 attend outings and 130 participate in various counts and special activities. There is no effective committee structure. There is concern about the difficulty of obtaining accurate information from National about membership numbers and any way of characterizing these members. Without this information, we cannot know if we are growing or retaining members, where those members live, what their interests are, and how we can reach them.

Fundraising activities include the spring and fall feeder cleanings, a silent auction, the Birdathon, and a CD of local music. Current assets are about $25,000. SAS sponsors “Audubon Adventures” in classrooms for many area teachers and occasionally donates funds to other worthy causes. The board is trying to establish an endowment to stabilize funding because the membership dues coming to the chapter from the national organization are variable. The feasibility of hiring a part-time administrator has been discussed.

Reviewing SAS history, we find names of the founding members listed on the application for a non-profit organization incorporation. The date was 1975, although it appears the organization was operating in some form since 1971. A student group formed and had offices on the campus of Indiana University. Much archival information was lost when files stored at the Indiana Memorial Union were destroyed. Anyone who can help reconstruct the history can contact Cathy Meyer at cmeyer@co.monroe.in.us with information. The planning group needs stories about what SAS has done in the past and who was involved. We do know SAS was involved in stopping the nuclear power plant at Marble Hill, influencing the designation of The Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area, improving the 1985 Hoosier National Forest Plan, and forming the Sycamore Land Trust.

Changes over the years have left SAS with a lower profile than it once had in the community. The student group disbanded several years ago, the Sycamore Land Trust has grown into a successful land preservation organization, several other groups formed to address forest management issues, and the National Audubon Society has undergone many changes. There are many activities competing for people’s time and money.

As we proceed, we will be seeking input from members about what SAS’ priorities should be and how we can increase membership involvement. Contact Cathy if you would like to help. These are exciting opportunities for those who care about wildlife and habitats in south-central Indiana!