Location
Jasper County

Ecoregion
Central Tallgrass Prairie

Size
221 Acres (NIPSCO Savanna)
429 Acres (Aukiki)
162 Acres (NiSource Property) 

Owned & Managed By
The Nature Conservancy, Division of Fish & Wildlife and NiSource

Partners 
North America Wetland Conservation Act

How to Prepare for Your Visit
The easy terrain and wondrous scenes will make for a sweet hike in the savanna. Make sure to respect the private land that surrounds the preserve and do not trespass. Nisource donated 650 acres to The Nature Conservancy - 221 acres make up the savanna while the rest is primarily agricultural land called Aukiki - but the center of the property remains under NiSource control. A management agreement was made between TNC and NiSource to ensure appropriate ecological management was used on the land.

Directions
Directions to Aukiki parking lot: From Rensselaer, travel north on U.S. 231 approximately 17.5 miles to the intersection with S.R. 10. Turn east (right) on S.R. 10 and travel approximately 5 miles to S.R. 49. Turn left (north) on S.R. 49 and travel about 2.5 miles to C.R. 1500 N. Turn right and withing 0.5 mile watch for a wooden DNR sign and parking lot on the north side of the road.

The open portion fo the savanna runs north of the parking lot. Please respect the private property owned well field to the east and do not trespass.

What to See: Plants and Animals
The dominant woody species is obvioulsy the black oak which offers shade Pennsylvania sedge, blazing star, pucoon and wild lupine. In the dry sand prarie portion of the preserve, little bluestem grass is the dominant specie and shares it rough and sand dropseed, dwarf dandelion, prickly pear, sand bracted sedge and flowering spurge.

The black oak barrens and sand prarie communities provide crucial habitat to rare or threatened species such as grassland-dependent skippers, ornate box turtles and the plain pocket gopher.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing/has Done 
The Nature Conservancy staff and volunteers have manually removed much of the wooden understory in order to reduce the canopy cover at NIPSCO. We have also been working with the DNR and NiSource to coordinate prescribed burns as to enhance the mosiac of oak barrens and prairie. Unlike the wildfire of April 2002 where 70 acres of mature black and white oaks were killed by the fire, prescribed burns rarely kill mature trees because they are ignited carefully in perfect weather conditions that would limit fire intensity.

Other Conservation Efforts 
In DNR-owned Aukiki, 200 acres of the farm field were planted with warm season grasses in order to provide wildlife habitat and hunting oppurtunities. The Division of Fish and Wildlife, partnered with Ducks Unlimited, have created a wetland areas to provide breeding and migration habitat for waterfowl alond the Kankakee River.

For More Information  
Indiana's Division of Fish & Wildlife