Hoot Woods: 60 years of research at Indiana’s 301st State Nature Preserve

by John Lawrence, Executive Director

Sycamore Land Trust’s Hoot Woods in Owen County protects one of the very few old-growth forest stands remaining in Indiana. This year, Hoot Woods was dedicated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as Indiana’s 301st state nature preserve, recognizing it as one of the most significant natural areas in the state. And next year, Sycamore staff and volunteers will be assisting for the second time with a forest research project that was started in 1965 by Dr. Marion Jackson, the renowned editor of The Natural Heritage of Indiana and expert in Indiana nature.

Indiana’s system of state-dedicated nature preserves was created by Indiana’s General Assembly with the passage of the 1967 Nature Preserves Act, which recognized the importance of special natural areas and created a mechanism for the state to give them extra protection. The legislation begins with this statement:

As part of the continuing growth of the population and the development of the economy of Indiana, it is necessary and desirable that areas of unusual natural significance be set aside and preserved for the benefit of present and future generations before the areas have been destroyed. Once the areas have been destroyed, the areas cannot be wholly restored.

The act empowered the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to dedicate such unusually significant natural areas as “nature preserves,” which then are subject to use restrictions that protect the preserve’s special natural qualities. Some state-dedicated nature preserves are owned and managed by the DNR, but many others are owned and managed by other units of government or private land owners, including nonprofits like Sycamore.

State nature preserve dedication is voluntary. Sycamore and other land trusts have often partnered with the DNR to protect a nature preserve, with the DNR giving funding for the land trust to buy the property in return for state dedication. However, in the case of Hoot Woods, the Hoot family generously donated the land to Sycamore. Sycamore then gladly partnered with the DNR to dedicate the preserve.

In addition to being a prestigious recognition, dedication facilitates valuable partnerships with the DNR’s Division of Nature Preserves (DNP) and their expert staff. For example, DNP’s botanist, Scott Namestnik, has spent many valuable hours inventorying plants at Sycamore’s Canyon Forest Nature Preserve and Clemens Place of Clifty Creek Nature Preserve, both state-dedicated nature preserves that were generous donated to Sycamore by their landowners to be sure they would be protected.

The first botanical inventory of Hoot Woods that Sycamore is aware of was published in 1961 by Robert O. Petty and Alton A. Lindsey in the Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, Volume 71. The authors’ introduction emphasizes the importance of this natural area:

Few examples now remain of the presettlement forest on Indiana. Remnants, however small, which have been protected from decimation, are increasingly difficult to find outside of the heavily trampled acreage of our state parks. When such an area is discovered it is important botanically that a detailed description of it be added to our scant record of the original vegetation of the midwest.

The virgin stand reported in this paper is owned by the heirs of the late George and Bertha Hoot. The authors express their gratitude to Anne, Alice and Robert Hoot for permission to conduct this study.

Speaking of gratitude, Alice Hoot also deserves great thanks for voluntarily protecting her family’s property in 1981 by donating a permanent conservation easement to The Nature Conservancy (TNC). At the time, she was the sole owner of the property. She retained ownership of the land, while giving an easement to TNC that prohibited timbering, building, and other activities that would negatively impact the old-growth woods. Notably, Dr. Jackson signed the conservation easement as a witness to Ms. Hoot’s signature. And in 2017, Ms. Hoot’s heirs generously donated the property to Sycamore for us to care for in perpetuity. Following this wonderful gift, Sycamore worked with the DNR to dedicate the property as a state nature preserve.

Dr. Jackson’s long-term research project at Hoot Woods began in 1965, which he described in the autumn 2005 edition of the Indiana Plant and Wildflower Society (INPAWS) newsletter:

During the summer of 1965, my graduate student Phil Allen, a native Owen Countian, did a full census of all the trees in approximately 16 acres of Hoot Woods, then plotted the nearly 1,500 individual trees as to their exact location on a 1:33 scale map. This data set provided the basis for Phil’s thesis and for re-surveys in 1975, 1985, 1995, and the 2005 inventory completed this June. Each decade, each tree is measured to record growth increments. Also noted are the deaths of individual trees and in-growths of saplings. Dr. Mark Cowell, formerly of ISU [Indiana State University, where Dr. Jackson had a 37-year career] and now at U. Mo. at Columbia, assisted me in this year’s field study and will continue the project into the future.

Unfortunately the 2015 census was not able to be conducted, and Dr. Jackson passed away in 2019. But soon afterwards, Dr. Cowell and his colleague, Dr. Kerry Woods, contacted Sycamore about continuing this important project. COVID concerns delayed the effort until 2021, when Sycamore staff, interns, and volunteers helped our colleagues complete the sixth census of this amazing remnant of our natural history. Sycamore will assist with the seventh census next year, in 2025, to stay on track with the original 10-year resample design.

In his 2005 INPAWS article, Dr. Jackson said that “Of the approximately 50 old-growth beech-maple dominated remnants of the original Eastern Deciduous Forest ecosystem that my students and I have researched during more than 40 years, Hoot Woods ranks as my all-time favorite.”

It’s a great honor that Sycamore has been entrusted with caring for one of Indiana’s most significant natural areas, and to continue this important long-term scientific research. Your support of Sycamore’s work enables us to do this critical research, and to protect and manage special places like Hoot Woods!

This article is from the Summer 2024 issue of The Twig, “The Habitat Issue.” Read the issue at sycamorelandtrust.org/twig.