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Places We Protect

Goose Pond Cypress Slough

Indiana

Goose Pond Cypress Slough Located in Posey County, Indiana. © Ron Leonetti

A series of ponds and marshy areas, home to one of Indiana’s few remaining cypress stands.

Viewing

Overview

Description

Why You Should Visit

Dedicated as a State Nature Preserve in 1995, Goose Pond Cypress Slough in Posey County is a slice of the Deep South found in southwestern Indiana. The pond is actually a series of small sloughs—old side channels in the Ohio River floodplain—that run about four miles along the river. Stately bald cypress trees and cypress knees line the slough, and this preserve is perhaps the easiest place to view these unusual-to-the-state trees. Visiting this site in the wetter months can be tricky, but is definitely worth it.

What The Nature Conservancy is Doing/has Done

Acquiring the pondweed-carpeted cypress slough preserved a unique habitat to Indiana as the bald cypress is near its northern range limit in southwestern Indiana. Unfortunately, the greatest threat to the slough is flooding from the Ohio River. A navigation dam on the Ohio backs water up into the preserve almost every spring, depositing an inch or two of sediment. The Conservancy fears that the preserve will eventually be altered beyond its capacity for healing and that all of the interesting plants and animals will be lost.

Work done at this preserve is in partnership with the Indiana Heritage Trust & Department of Nature Preserves.

Access

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Midsummer and autumn are considered the best times to visit this preserve!

Hours

Open year-round from dawn to dusk.

Size

60 acres

Explore our work in this region

What to See: Plants and Animals

The bald cypress tree—with its broad, buttressed trunk and spirally arranged linear leaves and cypress knees—line the slough. Other species of trees share the preserve including green ash, maples, and old sycamores. The bald cypress/green ash/silver maple community is restricted to only four viable sites in the state following years of logging, draining and other development, so such a site is quite a treat. In autumn, visitors will be treated not only to the bold red of silver maples but also the rare-for-Indiana "cypress gold."

Although some visitors believe they have seen the eyes of an alligator peering out from the slough, there are no such dangers. There is a variety of wildlife though with turtles, frogs, and birds thriving in the pools. If you're lucky, you may even spot the rare copperbelly water snake.

No trails exist at this time, but the easy to moderate terrain is still good for hiking. Spring visits are tricky; if the Ohio River's water levels are high, the road through the preserve (and the preserve itself) is likely underwater. Midsummer (after the mud deposited from floodwaters have dried) and autumn are considered the best times to visit. During wetter times, mosquito repellant is recommended.