NRC expands Parke County preserve

BLOOMINGDALE --The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) has approved an addition to the Mossy Point Nature Preserve in Parke County.

The Parke County nature preserve addition protects 25.73 acres along Sugar Creek and offers a trail and a parking area.

The property is a breeding area for several species of thrush and warblers, and is a winter roost for bald eagles.

The high, dry ridges support stands of white oak and shagbark hickory, while the rocky points extending down to Sugar Creek feature a riparian microclimate wet and cool enough to support one of the southernmost populations of relict Eastern hemlock.

Beneath the hemlocks are such uncommon plants as witch hazel, partridgeberry, and ginseng.

Dedicated as a State Nature Preserve in 2005, Mossy Point in Parke County is an ecologically-varied landscape characterized by high-and-dry ridges, deep ravines covered by lush canopy and views of Sugar Creek.

Measuring nearly a mile, the extensive Sugar Creek frontage provides excellent habitat along the riparian corridor for edge-sensitive forest interior species as the site is completely wooded with an unbroken forest canopy. By some accounts, this area is the most ecological varied land between the Wabash River and Turkey Run.

Around 2005, The Nature Conservancy acquired additional tracts of land and transferred the land to the Department of Natural Resources.