HOWE â Itâs going to get a lot easier to see all of the plants and animals that make Pine Knob Park just east of Howe the amazing place that it is, as work crews work toward completing a new walking trail through the wildest part of the park.
LaGrange County Parks and Recreation Department construction crews are extending the parkâs existing trail through the parkâs oak savanna, upland prairies and the Duff Lake wetland.
The at-points elevated walking trail will allow visitors to walk through the parkâs fen, a delicate wetland environment, without disturbing or destroying it. A fen is a unique micro-environment that is now considered to be extremely rare. Fens are islands of biomass that float more or less on groundwater, making them spongy to walk on. Fens make up less than 1% of the total surface of the Earth and can be found in Michigan and Indiana.
INDIANAPOLIS â Wetlands legislation that had seen compromises added that were favorable to environmental groups ended up passing Tuesday with those changes stripped, providing little protection to Indiana classified wetlands.
The bill passed the House on a 58-40 tally, with numerous Republicans voting no on the final version, which saw amendments favorable to environmental groups stripped out at the last minute Monday.
Lawmakers from northeast Indiana, where much of the stateâs remaining wetlands can be found, voted against the bill. They included Reps. David Abbott, R-Albion, Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, and Denny Zent, R-Angola.
The bill now returns to the Senate where its author, Sen. Chris Garten, can either agree to the amendments to the bill or send it to a conference committee between the House and Senate to work out differences. Once that process is complete, the bill advances to Gov. Eric Holcombâs desk for approval or a veto.
ANGOLA â The downtown Angola pocket park that has long been known as the âyet-to-be named pocket parkâ has a name.
After soliciting the public for ideas for a name, the Craig and Colleen Everage family who owns the park has decided on one name that they think helps reflect the nature of the park and the first public event held in it last year before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many organized activities in the community.
Bird Song Park will be the name of the park thatâs located on the corner of East Maumee and North Elizabeth streets in downtown Angola.
More aptly, said BHM Executive Director Nate Simons, they could be called âseeds of hope.â
Simons â who titled the day s work Seeds of Truth â chose the word âhopeâ as his muse for 2020, a year many are eager to put in the past. From memory, he quoted Psalm 8 â a tribute to Godâs creation of humans and their duty to âthe animals of the wild, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea.â
The seeds planted Sunday at Lake George and in the Lake James area can âmake things look new again,â said Simons.
They were collected by BHM volunteers this fall and represent thousands of dollars worth of wildflowers and native grasses. Some were shared with the Lake George Conservancy District, which continues to beautify 60 acres purchased by Lake George area residents in 2004 to avoid a truck stop development there.