March 2025

We Are Leaving the Nest And Building a Home!  For over 20 years, Blue Heron Ministries received the generous gift of office space within the building that houses The Presbyterian Chapel of the Lakes, in rural Steuben County. In 2017, we purchased land and a garage across the road and moved our equipment and work facility to that central location. We are now completing the move of our entire organization and operations to our work facility. We are leaving the nest and building a “home” that will house our central office, restrooms, meeting space, and documents storage.  The 528 square feet (24 ft. X 22 ft.) will be an addition that will connect to the existing garage/barn that houses equipment storage, workshop, and seed storage/cleaning facilities. The office space addition will be nestled adjacent to and highlighted by our demonstration prairie, well under development.   The total cost of the office addition will be $150,000.   We have made every effort to keep costs down on building this new home.  We are doing nothing fancy with this construction.  We are not a fancy organization. We are a mission driven non-profit to “build communities where creation is kept and to keep creation so that community may be restored.”  We are land stewards and work to first restore natural areas and then manage them to reach and represent high quality natural communities within our Lakes Country homeland.

Plan design by John Onofrietti

We have been approved for a construction loan and plan to break ground later this spring. To reduce the amount that we will need to borrow to build our office addition, we are spending some of our savings and asking our friends to help raise funds.  And we have a unique opportunity to which we invite you to help us reach our goal to get into this new home. The Fred and Jackie Wooley Advised Fund, with our local Steuben County Community Foundation, is generously providing a $25,000 matching grant challenge to help us realize our goal!  For every dollar donated before April 30, the fund will match dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 total.      You know how these work. If you are able to donate $25.00, it becomes $50.00 to our building campaign.  Donate $250.00, it becomes $500.00. And so on…     Please consider becoming a part of the Blue Heron Ministries future. You can send your donation to Blue Heron Ministries, 2955 W. Orland Rd., Angola, IN 46703 or simply click on this link. However you may choose to donate, please make a note that it is for the ‘office addition’. Blue Heron Ministries is 501(c)3 non-profit Christian land conservation organization. All financial gifts are tax-deductible.   Thank you for your helping us fly to our new home. And may you receive the blessings from the One who blesses everything everywhere with His presence.

View from the Crew by Madi Parker

We started this month off with some snow and fire line prep before jumping into full on fire season! Eva is pictured here with a boardwalk at Duff Lake Fen that we used brush cutters to mow around to ensure our prescribed fire at this location would not damage the boardwalk.

Nate and Eva observe a fire chimney. This sometimes happens when hollow trees catch fire.

The following couple of pictures show how many people joined us for burns this month! We have great fire crews and it’s amazing to see some familiar faces!

Previous Blue Crew member, Freya joined us for a couple burns at Little River Wetlands Project in Fort Wayne. Thanks for helping out Freya! We miss you!

The Blue Crew joined forces with members from Pigeon River Fish and Wildlife and Department of Nature Preserve to burn a 100 acre Pigeon River property.

Nate teaches Caroline, the director of Clear Lake Township Land Conservancy, how to burn out a corner at Brennan Woods at Clear Lake.

This picture gives you an idea of how packed the trucks can get during fire season! We have lots of gear to transport from site to site.

Matt demonstrates how leaf blowers can be utilized as fire suppression on the fire line.

Sometimes we have lots of mop up to do after the burn is completed. Mop up ensures the area is safe to leave. We make sure things are not smoking within 50 feet of the burn perimeter. Sometimes we use lots of water for mop up as shown here.

Sometimes we use a tool called a pulaski to pull apart stumps or other woody debris that is smoldering as Eva is doing in this photo.

And sometimes we break out the chainsaws to cut down trees that have caught fire or cut up woody debris. (Josh showing off his impressive chainsaw skills).

Here Nate is explaining how spots on a fire happen and how they can be suppressed. A spot is when a fire starts outside of the burn unit. Spots can happen due to on-fire oak leaves rolling across the fire line, cattail fluff catching fire and floating across the line, or other similar events.

The Pigeon River crew uses fire rakes to create a burn line before a fire.

It’s important to make sure all personal items are secured to your person when burning! John lost his phone in the fire at Duff Lake Fen. Thankfully Eva found it, and it still works!

He did have to get a new case though…hopefully the nice red color will make it easy to find.

We can use special techniques to ensure the radiant heat from the fire does not damage house siding or trees. Here is an example of dots of fire being strategically placed, so the fire does not melt the siding of this house.

Dots are also being used here to keep heat off of landscape trees outside of the unit.

Eva, Josh and I mow down the prairie planting at Fremont Public Library in preparation to burn the site. We mow this site prior to burning it so it does not get too hot on the library itself.

Nate explains the plans for the fire to the crew during a windy day.

Head fire refers to the portion of the fire that is being pushed by the wind. It is the largest part of the fire and usually the last area to be lit during burns.

Eva found two garter snakes hanging out in the black after our burn at Duff Lake Fen.

Upcoming Events

Join Blue Crew member Eva Curtis to celebrate Earth Day by removing invasive garlic mustard! At this event, you can expect to learn how to identify garlic mustard, what makes it invasive, and how to successfully remove it. Please wear long sleeves and pants, and bring garden gloves and a water bottle.  We will be meeting at the Pokagon State Park Nature Center on Saturday, April 26th 2025 at 2pm.  Please email evacurtis2000@gmail.com to RSVP for this event or to ask any questions!