Stormwater resilience at the Carl Ziegler Wetlands and Education Center

Green infrastructure mimics Indiana’s natural landscapes

by Saige Sentell, Education Director

Beneath our feet, the Mitchell Karst Plain’s soluble limestone bedrock has slowly dissolved over thousands of years, creating sinkholes, shallow depressions, and underground channels. After heavy rains or snowmelt, these features collect water in ephemeral wetlands and temporary pools that appear, linger, and gradually disappear. In wetter seasons, especially spring, these depressions slow stormwater, allowing it to filter through soil and fractured limestone and recharge groundwater rather than rapidly running off the land’s surface. These processes are easy to see at Sycamore’s Porter West Preserve, where sinkholes dot both uplands and low areas, forming ephemeral wetlands that support a rich community of plants and wildlife, including sedges, reeds, and migratory birds like the Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers.

Neighboring ecoregions, including the Brown County Hills, tell a similar story in a different form. Steep, forested slopes give way to natural hollows, swales, and floodplain low spots where water spreads out and settles. These landscapes function like sponges, reducing erosion, trapping sediment, and allowing rain to infiltrate gradually into the soil. This process is visible along the slopes of Laura Hare Nature Preserve at Downey Hill, where oaks, hickories, sedges, and topography work together to manage water naturally.

Along the shores of Lake Michigan, dune-swale ecosystems form natural networks of sandy ridges and wet depressions that capture, filter, and slowly release water. Protected by our conservation partner, Shirley Heinze Land Trust, this globally rare ecosystem is unique to the Great Lakes region. While these landscapes look very different from southern Indiana’s karst and hills, they share key characteristics, including seasonally fluctuating water levels and plant communities dominated by sedges, grasses, and forbs adapted to cycles of flooding and drying.

The native bearded beggarticks growing around the wetland areas at the Carl Ziegler Wetlands helps stabilize soil and reduce erosion. Photo by Chris Fox

At the Carl Ziegler Wetlands and Education Center, our grounds will feature green infrastructure that mirrors these natural systems and supports Indiana’s biodiversity. Rain gardens, bioswales, and permeable surfaces will capture stormwater, sediment, and pollutants from the parking lot, Old State Road 37, and building roofs, slowing water as it moves across the site. Native plants, grown in Sycamore’s Native Plant Nursery from seed collected across our preserves, will anchor soil, absorb excess water, and provide habitat. Beneath the surface, engineered soil media and limestone aggregate will further filter runoff before it reenters Beanblossom Creek and the adjacent wetlands.

Volunteers helped to collect seed at the Carl Ziegler Wetlands to grow hardy native plants for habitat restoration in our Native Plant Nursery. Photos by Saige Sentell

By mimicking stormwater strategies already perfected by Indiana’s geology and ecosystems, the Carl Ziegler Wetlands and Education Center will demonstrate how natural landscapes don’t fight stormwater, they welcome it.

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