September 2022

Wrapping Arms and Minds Around the Big Bur Oak of Fremont By Fred Wooley For tree enthusiasts, nothing stirs and elicits awe more than a huge, magnificent tree. We take notice and wonder its size, age, how it survived so long to get so big.If it is a smaller species, such as dogwood or redbud, a big one of those certainly gets noticed and admired, but really, its trunk at chest height may only be the diameter of a small dinner plate and the tallest branches maybe reach just past the eaves of a house.If it is a larger species, such as any of our big oaks, a large one’s diameter could reach the size of a dining room table and it could tower two or three times the height of a two-story house.One such tree, a bur oak, stands tall and mighty here in northeast Indiana. It is not out in some nature preserve or in a large, rural woodland, but right in downtown, Fremont, Indiana, on the main street, in the second block east from the heart of town.

Bur oak on East Toledo Street, downtown Fremont, IN

When I first moved to Steuben County, I lived on nearby Clear Lake and while going to and from work at Pokagon State Park, I would pass and admire this mammoth oak. Later when BHM Director, Nate Simons and his spouse Aimee moved east of Fremont, I asked him if he had noticed the tree.“Oh yeah, that is a beautiful and maybe largest bur oak in the area!” he replied.In presentations on the early landscapes of Steuben County, Nate refers to prairies and oak openings. The most significant were along the northern portions of the county, wide expanses of open, flat grasslands, scattered with just a few oak trees, stretching between occasional lakes, wetlands, streams, and small oak woodlands.We have the “willow prairie” east of Fremont, it now supporting agricultural fields and its namesake, Willow Prairie subdivision. To the west, stretching through the Orland area is the Jackson prairie and its reminder, Jackson Prairie Cemetery. Again, now mostly agricultural fields, pieces of prairie (relic plants), are still found in areas along railroads, some unmown roadsides, and corners of cemeteries.Another piece of the prairie, not always frequent, but when present, often a big piece, is the bur oak. We find them lined along county roads and along State Road 120, out in the country and in the case of Fremont’s big bur oak, right in town. They were once scattered in open areas but since settlement have fallen in favor of farming. We are lucky that roadsides have preserved these big beauties.Open and prairie-grown bur oaks tend to be of a wide and spreading branching character. They had little or no competition next to them to force a tall and narrow growth habit, so they spread out with horizontal limbs while also reaching for the sky to impressive heights.Other oaks could grow in or near prairies, but the bur is the most common, its thick bark resilient against prairie fires that would certainly sweep across the countryside.

Main trunk over 18 feet in circumference of big bur oak in downtown Fremont, Indiana.

We stopped and measured the main street Fremont bur oak. Foresters refer to the diameter breast height (DBH), so we measured the circumference at about 4.5 feet above the ground. This one measured 18 feet, 4 inches (220 inches in circumference or 70 inches in diamter)! With a human wingspan of approximately 72 inches, it takes 3 people to wrap arms around this behemoth. A calculation using a formula (diameter in inches X a growth factor for moderately-slow growing trees of 5.0) to estimate age tells us this big boy could be 350 years old. Do the math, its first tiny hairlike root cracked and emerged from an acorn around 1670, more than a hundred years before the birth of our country.To view from high above, the tree is squarely in the middle of the north one-half of the block. If moved east or west, the tree crown would cover nearly the entire quarter-section! Suffice it to say, this one tree has the crown surface area of nearly one-fifth of the city block.

Large bur oak in center of block along East Toledo Street. Smaller offspring on southeast corner of block.

Every year, we casually keep an eye on this relic to monitor acorn production. The fruits of a tree are referred to as “mast.” Foresters refer to a large or “bumper crop” of tree nuts as a “mast year.” On a recent visit to the oak, I found just a few acorns. When leaving, I circled the block and on the southeast corner found another big bur oak! Covering the ground all around the tree and extending into the street, the acorns from this oak nearly formed a carpet…that numerous.This tree, likely a youngster of the big one a yard away, measures 12 feet, 4 inches in circumference and calculates to approximately 235 years old. It began its long, open, sun-soaking journey around 1787, 29 years before Indiana became a state and 47 years before the Fremont was first settled, then under the name of, yes…Willow Prairie.

Mast year crop of acorns from smaller bur oak in same block, likely an offspring of the big one a yard away. Photo by Nate Simons

The stories these two trees could tell, of all that has passed below. When first growing, only Native Americans, mostly Miami and Potawatomi stopped and rested, maybe made camp, in their shade. Early pioneer accounts indicate that the Town of Fremont (or Willow Prairie) was a frequent summer camp for a band of the St. Joseph Potawatomi. Horse-drawn buggies and wagons were the next forms of human movement to pass under the big tree along Vistula Trail (now State Road 120 in northeast Indiana), the main route from Toledo to Chicago. By then, the tree had to be noticed, already huge and 200 years old.In high branches, passenger pigeons likely perched, possibly roosted, in big flocks, before the last of their kind died and the species entered extinction in 1914, now over 100 years ago.Wild animals and humans have come and gone, but these big bur oaks live on. They continue to provide awe and inspiration … and acorns for the next generations.The largest bur oak in Indiana?… That beast resides in Posey County and stretches the tape measure to 294 inches, 74 inches, or over six feet, bigger around than Fremont’s. It would take an additional person in a of group tree-huggers to wrap arms around that tree. If you visit the Fremont trees, please view them from the street or sidewalk, being respectful of the homeowners. Plus, it is hard enough to wrap your head around their size, much less your arms.

Made for Creation by T. M. MooreTo keep and to develop.The Celtic Revival: Celtic Christian WorldviewThe Most High, foreseeing the mechanism and harmony of the world, had made heaven and earth, established sea and waters, and the seeds of plants, and the bushes in thickets, sun, moon, and stars, fire and [all] needful things, birds, fish, and cattle, beasts and animals – and last of all the first man, to rule them through foreknowledge.  – Colum Cille,Altus Prosator (6th century)For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus…  – Hebrews 2.5-9 God created all things good. That is, the creation originally reflected the very character of God. It was whole, harmonious, orderly, beautiful, abounding, diverse, holy, and, insofar as creatures can be, brimming with love. Just like God Who made it.God’s last pronouncement on His creation was that it was “very good” (Gen. 1.31). Why this added emphasis – very good – at the end of the six days? Because on day six God created man – male and female created He them – in His own image and likeness, and He tasked them with cultivating and guarding the creation (Gen. 2.15) so that it could continue to reflect the goodness of God in all its aspects. He also tasked them with filling the earth with offspring, who, but for the fall into sin, would have continued extending God’s goodness, like their parents, until the entire earth became a “very good” garden.Celtic Christians like Colum Cille understood this. They also understood that God had made the world and everything in it, so that the world could only realize His purpose as people made in His image and likeness applied themselves diligently to working and guarding the creation according to God’s Word and plan.In our excerpt, the word foreseeing indicates the eternal counsel and plan of God. He made the world and everything in it, and He upholds it by the mechanisms of the properties, laws, and operations we observe around us all day long. These properties, laws, and operations are merely descriptions of how God – Who is faithful and unchanging – upholds the universe at all times by His Word of power (Heb. 1.3). Colum put it this way a bit later on in Altus Prosator:  By the divine powers of the great God   the globe of the earth is suspended, and the circle of the great abyss set,   held up by God, by the mighty hand of the Omnipotent.   Columns support it like bars,   promontories and cliffs, firm foundations,   like pillars planted and immovable.Colum was not saying that the earth or the cosmos was suspended on pillars. God’s hand and Word serve like supporting bars and like pillars to uphold and keep all that He has made.Our work is to be a mirror image of God’s work. We must apply ourselves to the stuff of creation so that we “rule through foreknowledge,” that is, through the Word of God revealed to us. The mandate to order, develop, and manage creation so that it continuously and increasingly reflects the goodness of God is upon us still. God so loved the world – the entire cosmos – that He gave His only begotten Son for the salvation of human beings, so that we might then apply ourselves to the salvation – the restoration of goodness – of all creation and culture, all our institutions and traditions, everything we are, do, enjoy, and use.Like the writer of Hebrews, we don’t see this happening much in our day. This is a failure on our part to understand our salvation, and our calling in the world, as the writer of Hebrews did, and as Celtic Christian thinkers like Colum, Columbanus, Augustine Hibernicus, Eriugena, and others did. But if we see Jesus – truly see Him, not just as the Savior of our souls but the King of creation – then we will realize that our great salvation (Heb. 2.3) is more expansive, exciting, and fraught with adventure than merely the prospect of going to heaven when we die and being assured of forgiveness while we remain here.The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it (Ps. 24.1). And we are stewards, tasked with ruling all aspects of the creation that come within our grasp, according to the good purposes and glorious plans of God, which He reveals to us in His Word.For Reflection 1. Is this the way you think about the creation around you? About those aspects of creation God has entrusted to you? Explain.2. What does it mean for you to be an agent of God’s goodness in your Personal Mission Field?Psalm 8.1-9 (Aurelia: The Church’s One Foundation) O Savior, how majestic, Your Name in all the earth! The heav’ns display Your glory, and tell Your wondrous worth! From babes and nursing infants, Lord, let Your strength increase, Till all Your foes surrender, and all their boasting cease.When I regard Your heavens, Your handiwork above, Ordained by Your good pleasure, according to Your love, Then what am I, O Savior, that You take thought of me? Or I should know Your favor and thus delivered be?Yet we in Your own image with glory have been crowned, To worship and to serve You throughout creation ‘round. These works that sing Your glory in our poor hands are placed, That we may rule before You to magnify Your grace.Let every beast and creature, in sky or sea or field, In our hands bring You glory as we Your favor wield. Let all things sing Your praises, let all declare Your worth! O Savior, how majestic, Your Name in all the earth!Lord, show me Your great salvation, and help me to…Glorifying God with Creation and Culture Want to learn more about how to hear and see the Lord in the works of creation? T.M. Moore’s book Consider the Lilies: A Plea for Creational Theology can help. Learn more about this book and order a free copy by clicking here.

Invasive Species Explanation with John Brittenham

In this Conservation Education video, produced in cooperation with the Steuben County Soil and Water Conservation District, Purdue Extension – Steuben County, and the Clear Lake Township Land Conservancy, BHM’s John Brittenham tells us about invasive species and the harm they can do to the habitats they invade.

View from the Crew by Nate Simons

The harvest from our garden was bountiful this year. Nearly four pecks of sweet red peppers ready for pickling. Sep. 4.

A spiderwort seed landed in the gravel by the barn. We left the plant to bloom. Sometimes, prairie plants bloom twice in one year. Spiderwort normally blooms in early June. Sep. 14

A Goshen College student tries her hand at using a drip torch in Dr. Nate Bosch’s prairie ecology lab.I have been invited to assist with the lab for about a decade. Sep. 15.

A viceroy butterfly rests on the red raspberry foliage in our garden. Sep. 15

Rachel Williams joins her mom collecting the pods of butterfly milkweed on our first seed collection tour of the season. Sep. 17

The late summer sun sets on the hand-planted Cedar Swamp Prairie, silhouetting a prairie dock seedhead and illuminating Indian grass. Sep. 17

A gray treefrog blends in with the deck railing at our house. Sep. 18

More bounty. Juliette cherry tomatoes are boxed and ready for delivery to some appreciative neighbors. Sep. 18

On the first day of autumn, Sarah Wilson was called back into duty to  guard the line as Nathan Herbert strings fire at Jake Hartman’s farm. Sep. 22

Nathan Herbert on loan from the Nature Conservancy uses a drip torch to ignite green fuels on the Hartman’s late growing season fire. Sep. 22

Gene Huss on loan from Pigeon River Fish & Wildlife Area works another unit at Jake Hartman’s place. Sep. 22

The green fuel produced a lot of steam and smoke. We burned 138 acres in 5 units in one long afternoon. Sep. 22

Travis Wenzel’s drone captured the drama of the prescribed fire very well on this 34 acre unit. Sep. 22

Dan and Terri Wyatt and Aimee and I got to relax together as we enjoyed the festivities and a 1943 steam engine-powered train ride from Angola to Pleasant Lake. Sep. 24

From the cab of the Div. of Nature Preserve’s tracked skidsteer mower, I cut invasive reed canary grass in the sedge meadow under restoration at Binkley Bog Nature Preserve. Sep. 28

Upcoming Events

Fall Prairie Plant Seed Harvest October 1st, 8th,15th, 22nd, 29th from 12-4PM The kickoff to our October native prairie seed harvests! Come help us further our mission by collecting seeds from native plants, to be used in our future projects. You’ll have the opportunity to learn about the plants and the protected spaces they inhabit. We’ll travel to some properties that Blue Heron Ministries helps manage, within Steuben and LaGrange counties. Join us for the opportunity to fellowship, visit unique natural communities, learn about native plants, and enjoy the autumn harvest. We have all the tools needed. We’ll meet at the Presbyterian Chapel of the Lakes (2955 W. Orland Rd Angola, IN 46703) and caravan to the site(s).

Annual Thanksgiving Breakfast November 19 at 9:30amAfter hosting our Tamarack Tour and Tailgates for the last two years, we have chosen to return to our traditional Thanksgiving breakfast at the Chapel (2955 W Orland Rd, Angola, IN 46703) . We invite all past/present/future volunteers and Blue Crew, financial supporters, landowners, partners, and anyone curious about what we do to join us! Table service and drinks will be provided, please bring a dish to share. To help us plan for seating, please RSVP to info@blueheronministries.org, by Friday, November 11th.