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Sycamore Land Trust tours Greene County
On Nov. 7, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., the Sycamore Land Trust led a Weekday Walk through Tulip Trestle and Sculpture Trails in Greene County, with stops at Larry Shute’s Solsberry model replica and Yoho General Store.
The Sycamore Land Trust is a nonprofit organization that uses membership costs, which are $40, and donations to purchase and protect natural areas. The trust is able to provide educational programs for free through the Monarch Environmental Endowment. The Greene County tour was part of their Weekday Walkers series, where several times a year, the land trust organizes trips for members and non-members to visit Sycamore properties as well as other natural sites. The Sycamore Land Trust coveres 27 southern Indiana counties, including Greene. The Dilcher-Turner Canyon Forest is located on the border of Greene and Monroe counties and features ravines and seasonal waterfalls. The forest is owned by the land trust, and is open and accessible to the public.
The group chose the four sites for their Greene County tour due to proximity and logistics, but also chose sites based on their cultural heritage in addition to their natural heritage.
“With the Sculpture Trails and the Tulip Trestle here, we still have that ability to enjoy the outdoors,” said Shane Gibson, Environmental Education Director for the Sycamore Land Trust. “So it fits with our overall mission at Sycamore, which is to protect the land and connect people to nature.”
The group of walkers was led by Gibson and Malea Huffman of Purdue Extension, and was composed of Elowen, 10, Marleyla, 14 and father Jim Wiltz of Bloomington; Elowen and Marleyla’s grandfather, Mike Davis, of Bloomington; Rick Rains of Indianapolis; Kris Lindborg of Bloomington, Janet Kelly of Unionville; Tom Mayer of Bloomington; Laura McIntosh of Bloomington and Pat Anderson of Bloomington.
The group met in Bloomington and departed to arrive at the Tulip Trestle Viaduct by 10 a.m., where they signed in at the observation deck and learned a little bit of information before walking a loop to the base of the viaduct and back to the deck.
Huffman noted that the Santa Train and the “hilliest 5k walk-run in Greene County” takes place at the viaduct.
At Larry Shute’s Solsberry Museum, he estimates that only a fifth of the people who visit the museum actually sign the sheet. Real visits amounted to more than 15,000 visits from individuals all over the world, and Shute is confident that more people visited in 2017. People are welcome to visit the museum no matter what color the traffic light hanging outside, and many people have.
Shute admitted that the replica of the viaduct was not exactly to scale. While the replica is 12 feet long, a true scale replica would measure 23 feet, nearly from the front end of the room to the back wall.
The group from Bloomington used their lunch stop at Yoho General Store to discuss what they noticed and appreciated about Greene County.
“We were definitely talking about the idea of community, and comparing Stinesville, what’s happening there, to what looks like Yoho being a nice community focal point and having that sense of community, so that was something that came up,” said Gibson. “Just on our drive, people talked about how beautiful it is out here in the countryside--the rolling hills, the nice views, and I just think overall people just found it interesting... to learn about something that’s so close to them, but maybe they haven’t been here.”
Shane met Huffman through a mutual acquaintance who does work with Goosepond as well as Sycamore Land Trust.
“I lived a lot of places and realized that a lot of them are all the same,” said Huffman. “There is tremendous good in Greene county.”
Huffman expressed that instilling awareness for natural areas on the youth level as well as the adult level, and partnering between organizations, is crucial for developing awareness.
“So of this group, half of them had heard of the trestle, half have heard of [Sculpture Trails], some of them didn’t even know that this existed--so those partnerships then help spread the word,” said Huffman. “The first time I met Shane, I knew about Sycamore Land Trust, but I didn’t know about all of their properties... but he didn’t know about the trestle. So you build that, and then it opens new doors so that you can learn new things. I think that cultivating pride of place is critical. And Larry Shute... talk about pride of place. He doesn’t know what it’s like to not be proud of where you live. Several people talked about coming back and bringing their friends. To me, that’s a win.”
