Demonstrating wetland restoration at Oliver Preserve

By Kate Hammel, Communications Director

In January, stewardship interns from Indiana University walked onto the newly created shallow pools at Oliver Preserve in Monroe County, which had frozen solid enough to stand on. These fields look entirely different than they did just a year earlier. Now part of a restored landscape designed to hold water, they are already beginning to show signs of functioning wetland habitat. In a few short months, frogs and salamanders will begin using these pools to breed, relying on them for the earliest stages of their life cycle and filling the air with their croaking spring chorus.

One of the biggest perks of working at Sycamore is getting to go “behind-the-scenes” to witness inspiring habitat restoration in action. Many of our most transformative projects happen quietly in the background, visible only to staff, volunteers, and researchers on nature preserves we close to the public to protect sensitive habitat.

But our most recent wetland restoration project at Oliver Preserve provides a unique opportunity for everyone to watch a wetland come back to life. Though the preserve is closed to the public while the land recovers, its restored wetland is visible from Old Maple Grove Road, just before passing through the historic Cedar Ford Covered Bridge, Monroe County’s only covered bridge, originally built in 1885.

Last fall, Sycamore constructed two new wetlands in Monroe County, one at Oliver Preserve connected to Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve, and another a few miles away at Dan Efroymson Preserve in our Sam Shine Foundation Preserve complex. Wetlands filter water, store floodwaters, and create critical breeding and foraging habitat for wildlife. They are among the most productive ecosystems on earth, yet Indiana has lost more than 87 percent of its original wetland habitat. By restoring former wetlands drained for agriculture, Sycamore is helping repair that loss along Beanblossom Creek and improving the health of the entire watershed.

To create the new Oliver Wetlands, we worked with contractors to excavate shallow pools where water from Beanblossom Creek can rise and settle. Once hydrology was restored, our team planted 12,500 native trees and more than 4,000 wetland plant plugs grown from locally collected seed at our Native Plant Nursery.

Oliver Preserve was donated to Sycamore in 2024 by Bill and Kathleen Oliver. Its restoration is supported in part by the USDA’s Wetland Reserve Easement program. Restoration at Dan Efroymson Preserve is funded by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, with additional support from Ducks Unlimited and Sycamore members.

Construction was completed last fall on new wetland areas at Oliver Preserve, which can be seen from Old Maple Grove Road north of the historic Cedar Ford Covered Bridge. John Lawrence

These new wetlands follow restoration projects we completed in 2022 at the Fix-Stoelting Preserve and in 2023 at the Sam Shine Foundation Preserve, where more than 60 acres of new wetland habitat were established. We are helping wetlands along Beanblossom Creek return to life, and what’s taking shape is more than a thriving habitat; it’s a living classroom. As we prepare to open the nearby Carl Ziegler Wetlands and Education Center in the coming years, we’re building trails and outdoor classrooms throughout the property’s restored wetland that will welcome everyone to come “behind-the-scenes” with us. By providing opportunities to witness effective restoration in action, we hope to inspire similar projects across southern Indiana.

This story was featured in the Winter – Spring 2026 issue of The Twig, “The Water Quality Issue.” Read more at sycamorelandtrust.org/twig.