Beanblossom Creek Bicentennial Conservation Area

The Beanblossom Creek Bicentennial Conservation Area is Sycamore Land Trust’s ongoing project to protect and restore wetlands and other important natural areas in and along the floodplain of Beanblossom Creek, a major tributary of the East Fork of the White River. Beanblossom Creek was Sycamore’s first focus area for conservation, and continues to be a top priority.

Twenty-five years ago, Sycamore received our first donation of land in the Beanblossom Creek area from Barbara Restle, who had also donated adjoining land to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. A few years later Sycamore made our first land purchase, then called “Habitat for Herons,” which we added onto over the years and grew into the now 633-acre Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve. A donation from Patsy Powell added even more land along the creek, closer to the White River.

In 2015, Sycamore began acquiring even more important natural land along the creek through our Beanblossom Creek Bicentennial Conservation Area project. Funding has come from many generous donors, including the Indiana Bicentennial Nature Trust, the Sam Shine Foundation, the Efroymson Fund, the Laura Hare Charitable Trust, the Ropchan Foundation, Oliver Winery, and more than 200 individuals and businesses – including landowners who sold land at a reduced price.

With over $2 million of support, Sycamore purchased almost 900 acres through the end 2019 Altogether, with your help, we now preserve nearly 1,600 acres in the Beanblossom Creek area of Monroe County, plus another 260 acres along the creek in Brown County.

Do you have land near Beanblossom Creek or one of Sycamore’s nature preserves?
We’d love to talk with you about your options for working with Sycamore to preserve your land as a natural area forever. Please get in touch with Rob McCrea, our Land Preservation Director, at rob@sycamorelandtrust.org or 812-336-5382, extension 106.