Houghton Lake Wetland Restoration to Begin Fall 2009

Nature Conservancy Seeking Volunteers

CULVER, INDIANA — June, 2009 — How often do you get the chance to help restore and protect a rare wetland and lake in Indiana? Houghton Lake, one of Indiana’s last remaining undeveloped lakes and fringing wetlands will forever remain a wild, natural place for the future. But it need our will help in getting there. The Nature Conservancy is currently looking for volunteers to help collect seed to be used to restore the site.

Purchased in 2006 by the Conservancy, Houghton Lake in Marshall County is a wonderful example of a highly alkaline natural lake. It lies at the bottom of a broad valley that most likely carried off massive quantities of glacial melt-water. The lake is primarily fed by groundwater discharges from the surrounding hills of rolling glacial till.

The tillable lands that surround Houghton Lake are in agricultural production. Many of those agricultural fields were once fens (fens are alkaline, groundwater-fed wetlands that support a number of rare plant and animal species). Ditches and tiles move water out of the fields and away from our wetlands and the lake.

The Nature Conservancy has been working with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) over the last several months to enter the Houghton Lake property into the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), which will provide funding for restoring the farm fields to wetland vegetation.

“Over the next several months we will be preparing specific restoration plans for Houghton Lake,” said Stuart Orr, field steward for The Nature Conservancy’s Indiana Chapter. The farm field restoration will happen over two years; the fields in the north half of the property will be restored fall 2009 - spring 2010, and fields in the south half of the property will be restored fall 2010 - spring 2011. There are two parts to the field restoration - the drainage tiles will be broken to restore the hydrology, and the fields will be planted with seeds from a wide variety of native plants. “The challenge,” says Orr, “will be to get both parts of the restoration done when the fields are dry enough to support equipment.”

This will improve habitat for native fish, amphibians and reptiles as the water clears over time.

Help Needed!
During the summers of 2009 and 2010 Stuart Orr will be collecting seed from many species of plants around the lake to use in the farm fields. Anyone interested in helping collect seed for this project should contact Stuart Orr at sorr@tnc.org or (574) 946-7491.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.