South Bend Tribune
LYDICK — The Lydick Bog last week gained a status as a state-designated nature preserve, adding protections against buildings, development and other intrusions into the rare natural area.
The nonprofit Shirley Heinze Land Trust had acquired the 176-acre property in 2015 to protect the rare habitat, including 65 acres of wetlands, 85 acres of upland forest and about 20 acres of former farmland that it has planted with native trees.
The new designation, though, adds the state’s strongest protections, which will be attached to the land’s deed and in effect in perpetuity — an extra set of insurance, said officials with both the land trust and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
Lydick Bog is now the DNR’s 288th nature preserve, approved Tuesday by the agency’s Natural Resources Commission in Indianapolis.
It is also the sixth state nature preserve among Shirley Heinze’s 22 project areas across northwest Indiana, said Kristopher Krouse, director of the Valparaiso-based land trust.
Lydick Bog is now closed to public access along U.S. 20 just west of South Bend and the St. Joseph Valley Parkway.
The designation won’t cover 2 acres along U.S. 20 where Krouse said the organization is now demolishing a house and other vacant farm buildings, where it plans to install a parking lot and later a pavilion and restrooms as fundraising progresses.
In the nature preserve itself, the state’s long list of protections ban motor vehicles, buildings, bathrooms, sports fields and other development, though they allow foot trails and observation decks if they are properly placed and don’t impact the natural resources, said Tom Swinford, assistant director of the DNR’s nature preserves. Shirley Heinze is exploring a boardwalk into the wetlands and has already been developing dirt and mowed trails.
“If someone filed for eminent domain, it would be exponentially more difficult,” Krouse said.
If development is planned just outside of the preserve’s borders, Swinford noted, the developer would have to submit plans to the state for an environmental review — to see if it would harm the preserve. While the state couldn’t stop development at the borders, he said, “It gives us a chance to be at the table with the developer.”
Most “community-minded groups” tend to work with the state in such cases, Swinford said.
Shirley Heinze will host a luncheon March 22 where it will give updates on creating public access to Lydick Bog, plans for a dedication ceremony and other conservation efforts in St. Joseph County. The noon luncheon will be at the Gillespie Center, 53995 Indiana 933, South Bend. Tickets, at $40, can be ordered at www.heinzetrust.org or 219-242-8558.