Environmental
group purchases local land
By Jessica Webster
City
Editor
A group of zealous environmentalists is buying up
land in Greater Lafayette to never ever build on it.
NICHES, Northern Indiana Citizens Helping Ecosystems
Survive, is an organization that holds land in trust for perpetuity so
the land will never be developed. NICHES gathers land that holds significant
plants and wildlife or has potential for successful restoration.
Susan Ulrich, president of NICHES, said the 4-year-old
group is interested in habitat preservation and green space preservation
for human recreation.
"I am interested in natural history," said
Ulrich. "The legacy of the group is being able to build something
for the future; there will be places where the animals can roam and places
that people can enjoy."
Currently, NICHES owns six properties and its area
of interest includes Tippecanoe, Warren, Montgomery, White, Benton, Fountain,
Clinton and Carroll counties. Several of the lands are on the river or
contain wetlands and the group’s largest piece is 179 acres.
Ulrich said NICHES will plant 41,000 trees on one
of the pieces of land in Tippecanoe County this spring as part of a major
restoration project.
"We’re hoping by reforesting and providing
a large area of habitat, we can provide plants, animals and birds a large
enough breeding area."
Though the group’s success is growing, Ulrich
said NICHES does encounter obstacles.
"We’re all non-profit and all volunteer
and that’s one major challenge right there," said Ulrich. "Our
funding is very limited. Anything we’ve purchased is with a grant.
We’ve bought two pieces of land with the Indiana Heritage Trust grant
— with money that comes from the Indiana blue environmental license
plates."
Other NICHES properties are donated by people who
no longer have use for the land or want a tax write-off. One property
was donated by the city of Crawfordsville.
NICHES has several Purdue professors and staff on
its board, and one is forest ecology professor George Parker. Parker said
he believes the land trust is important for protecting spaces for recreation,
wildlife and natural resources.
"There have been groups that purchase high quality,
important areas that have high quality land, but the land trust kind of
falls in between a public park board and the nature conservancy.
"We’re more looking at areas that may not
be real high quality, but have potential for restoration and can provide
green space for people to use."
• NICHES will be dedicating one of its properties,
the Janssen Tract, along the Wabash River, at 11 a.m. on April 29. For
more information about volunteer opportunities or contribution opportunities,
contact Ulrich at 583-2275 or e-mail the group at sulrich@dellnet.com
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