January 2023

Thank Yous! The mission of Blue Heron Ministries is to build communities where Creation is kept; and to keep Creation so that community may be restored. The community that has gathered around that mission over the years has been generous with its gifts and in various and creative ways has taken seriously our responsibility and role to steward our Father’s good creation as servant rulers and humble royalty…just like Jesus. Thank you all. You bear a family resemblance to the One who made you! The Old Blue Crew. Phil Bieberich, John Brittenham, Josh Hall, Shelby Holsinger, Emily Schmidt, Dave Drogos, Sarah Wilson, and Fred Wooley. And Gene Huss, too. Our Summer Intern. Seth Graves. He worked hard and smart like our typical female interns. Our Administrative Assistant. Beth Williams. She loves collecting seed, teaching her kids to name, collect, and clean prairie seed…and to lead seed collection hikes. And she does a fine job of editing our Rustling Grass e-newsletter and is becoming involved in the Indiana Land Protection Alliance. Our Board of Advisors. Tom Smith, Peg Zeis, Beth Williams, Fred Wooley, and Nate Simons. Prairie Seed Collectors. John, Evelyn, David, and Naomi Brittenham; Denille and Alexis Conklin; Steve Haines; INPS volunteers Beth, Mike, Carolyn and Janel; Don Luepke; Victoria Mumaw; Kate Sanders; Nate Simons; Bette and Jim Thomson; Deanna Vasquez; Beth, Marc, Jeremy, Sarah and Rachel Williams; Fred Wooley; and Peg Zeis. Together you steward the genetic diversity of northeast Indiana prairies. The seed you have collected and planted over the years, though the original source may be gone (sadly!), the progeny lives on as vital examples of what wild country may have looked like around here nearly two hundred years ago.

Volunteers collecting native plant seeds on an October afternoon, at the Tri-State Airport.  photo: Beth Williams

Lawn Mower. Jim McCulloch. Our 2022 Prairie Planters. Denille Conklin; Fred Wooley; John Brittenham; Peg Zeis; Beth, Rachel, and Jeremy Williams; Mike Censke; and Aimee and Nate Simons. Our 2022 Generous Financial Donors. Since we do not regularly ask for money from our friends, it is always a pleasure to open envelopes and emails that contain unsolicited funds. It is like Christmas (or Epiphany)! Thank you all! John Bachelor, The Indiana Native Plant Society, Kathleen Yeadon, Allison Klement, Austin Aldrich, Bette Thomson (Thrivent Choice directed), Byron and Abby Getz, Melvin and Denille Conklin, Ed and Nancy Wilson, Anonymous through the Everence Foundation, Fred Duschl, Jim and Lynn Simons, Joanne McKeag, John Riegsecker, Joe Riegsecker, Ken and Dee Wolf, Lee and Pat Casebere, Patricia Fulton, Presbyterian Chapel of the Lakes, Rick and Martha Fansler, Robin Nessel, Steven and Pamela Etheridge, Tom and Sandy Post, Vincent Parker, Wible Real Estate, Inc., and Lindsay Pals.

Prairie planters waiting for seed to be mixed before planting the Durand addition to our Badger Barrens Preserve on December 3rd. photo: Beth Williams

View from the Crew by Nate Simons

On Epiphany evening, we celebrated a late Christmas gathering. It was “out with the old and in with the new” as former and remaining crew members of 2022 joined to welcome newcomers to Lakes Country. January 6.

The party’s food theme was “Chicago Dogs” in honor of Dave Drogos’ roots in and return to the Region.

Dave expertly demonstrated how to “drag the dog through the garden”…

…and how to devour that puppy.

The oaky landscape of early and mid-January experienced no winter snow. It was a good time to hunt the exotic, invasive shrub Autumn Olive at Div. of Nature Preserves’ Lime Lake Nature Preserve in northwest Steuben County. Cut it to the ground.

And paint stumps with herbicide to finish it off. January 4.

Aimee and I took a Sunday afternoon walk uptown to see “A Man Called Otto.” While dark at times with multiple failed (thankfully!) suicide attempts, the movie highlighted two themes for us as we continue to live into our neighborhood. Theme 1: Neighbors can become friends, and friends can become family. Theme 2: (With a very frequent and audible metaphor) Embrace interruptions. (Knock. Knock. Knock!)

Late January, winter finally came. I spent time in Div. of Nature Preserves’ Tamarack Bog Nature Preserve on the north side of Pigeon River in LaGrange County. The goal was to remove brush to once again allow sunlight to penetrate to the soft, fenny ground. Tufts of waning Tussuck Sedge indicate that sun used to dominate the scene here.

Once a few relict sedges were discovered, it was full throttle removing the native (and a few non-native) shrubs and small trees to clear a quarter-acre sized room next to the river…during the snowstorm. January 25.

The seed pods of our native Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa) vine and clamber over the arms of some shrubs within Tamarack Bog NP. Though related to edible, cultivated yams, the tubers of this species are not edible.

And members of the new Blue Crew pose in front of LaGrange County Park’s Pine Knob Park sign after a day of brush cutting on the shores of Meteer Lake. L-R, Matt Neff, John Brittenham, Josh Hall, Mike Censke, and Jared Nichols. January 24.