Little River Wetlands Project Inc

Programs: Property acquisition, wetland restoration, and stewardship protection: lrwp continued invasive plant control and other needed stewardship activities at its five wetland preserves: eagle marsh (756 acres), arrowhead prairie (158 acres), and arrowhead marsh (97 acres), buttonbush bottoms preserve (25 acres), 53-acre little river landing preserve (co- owned with acres land trust) already in a natural state, and a 140-acre conservation easement on private land, lrwp protected 1,227 acres in its project area as of 12/31/2017. Wetlands benefit nearby communities and areas downstream by enhancing flood control, cleansing groundwater, and offering recreational opportunities for all. Bird watching, hiking, and nature photography are popular at our preserves. Birders and hikers who visit the preserves enhance the local economy. Our preserves are also the site of many free community-oriented events and educational activities, to be described further below. Eagle marsh (756 acres), located on engle road on the southwest edge of fort wayne, is the "largest inland wetland restoration in the united states", the largest nature preserve in allen county and one of the largest wetland restorations ever in indiana. With adjacent fox island county park and private natural land, it comprises nearly two square miles of wildlife habitat. Restored to a natural ecosystem between 2006 and 2009, eagle marsh offers shallow water wetlands, a sedge meadow, wet and dry prairies, mature forested wetland, and young trees and shrubs as habitats for the different kinds of wildlife there. The additional 41 acres of mature forested wetland purchased between 2007 and 2010 further enhanced habitat diversity at the preserve. An additional 38 acres were added at the corner northeast corner of smith and engle road in 2016. At eagle marsh and our other preserves, we continued intensive work to manage invasive plant species such as callery pear trees, reed canary grass and phragmites with prescribed burns, mowing, herbicide applications and hand-pulling by volunteers. Lrwp staff continued to regularly monitor the new berm completed in the fall of 2015 that state and federal agencies had built earlier at eagle marsh to prevent asian carp from crossing between the mississippi and great lakes water systems during a flood event. Arrowhead marsh (97 acres) and arrowhead prairie (158 acres) located across the road from each other near aboite, indiana, were restored to wetland, prairie, and forest during two time periods. The original 188 acres were restored between 2002 and 2006, except a 13-acre mature woodland at arrowhead marsh was left intact. Sixty-seven acres added to arrowhead prairie in 2009 were restored in 2009 and 2010. Intensive stewardship of the two preserves continued in 2017 to help the native plants survive and thrive. Buttonbush bottoms (25 acres) is located on amber road in near aboite, indiana. In 2017 improvements included the completion of two loop trails that total over 1. 5 miles combined. Habitat restoration continues with invasive plant species removal. Lrwp's staff continually monitors the site for invasive plant species levels along with native plant establishment annually. Little river landing nature preserve (53 acres, co-owned with acres land trust) in huntington benefitted in 2015 from stewardship activities guided by a comprehensive land management plan created by lrwp. A landowner adjacent to the property is also under contract to do some basic invasives management, mowing and trail care in line with mandates of the plan.

community education and outreach programs: the benefits that lrwp provides to the community are numerous. Our preserves help control flooding in the area, cleanse groundwater, provide crucial wildlife habitat, and offer recreational opportunities such as hiking, birding, and nature photography on almost 15 miles of nature trails. The preserves also beautify nearby communities. Eagle marsh, the largest nature preserve in allen county and largest inland urban wetland restoration in the us, provides habitat for imperiled wildlife species and is the conveniently located site of most of our nature programming. In addition, they provide for an enhanced quality of life for all residents of northeastern indiana as well as those visitors to our community and those considering relocating to our community. To fulfill the wetland education component of our mission, lrwp provided an array of free wetland/nature education programs for adults, children, and seniors in 2017. These include: special community events that focus on education about wetlands, other nature topics and conservation such as earth day fort wayne and monarch festival at eagle marsh, both of which feature children's and adult activities, presentations on nature topics, educational stations on trails, and volunteering. Lrwp is holding the first annual urban turtle festival and 5k walk on may 19, 2018 to raise awareness of wetlands, turtle conservation efforts, and support wetland habitat at eagle marsh. Turtle conservation programs will include a new citizen science opportunity for anyone interested. Youth wetland/nature education programs for school, preschool, and afterschool programs; youth groups such as scouts; and families with children aged three and older. Usually these programs take place at our preserves. Sometimes they are given in a classroom, library or other site. We have worked hard to include underserved populations in these programs. Senior programs including breakfast on the marsh monthly free breakfast and wetland/nature program and outreach programs to seniors that include hikes, bus tours, and presentations. Weekly guided hikes and many special topic hikes at our wetland preserves with a staff member who is a trained naturalist or with a trained volunteer. Stewardship events and volunteer training that include learning about wetlands/nature. For example, volunteers may learn to identify invasive plant species, and remove these plants. Community wetland/nature education programs: mostly indoor programs for the general public, nonprofit groups, college classes, garden clubs, service groups and others. Participating in and offering a variety of programs by lrwp staff or volunteers at community events such as sol fest at fox island county park. Lrwp's free wetland education programs at our preserves reached 11,381 people in 2017, of whom 40% were youth, and 11% were from underserved communities. These numbers do not reflect the passive visitors including individuals and families participating in their own nature recreation at our preserves. Lrwp also educates the public through its website, newsletter, e-newsletter to 2,800+ recipients and its facebook page with close to 2,900 followers. Programming improvement activities included preliminary planning and design of a wetland education pavilion (outdoor classroom) at eagle marsh. Topographical and survey reports were completed along with conceptual designs for the wetland education pavilion. Initial funding for this project has been provided by the william and bonnie hefner foundation. Siting of the pavilion will occur in 2018, final design in 2019, a capital campaign in 2020, and construction planned for 2021. Lrwp will continue to work on this program, including expanding and adapting educational programs to reach a broader range of participants of varying ability levels. A seed to marsh program is also being launched in 2018. This program will enable people of all abilities to assist lrwp staff and volunteers with the collection and propagation of seeds, to growing, and planting native plants so everyone can be active participants in restoration at our preserves. Lrwp also offered an array of volunteer opportunities to those our community including: stewardship, citizen science projects, education, office, and large events totaling 250 plus volunteers, 2,700 hours, and utilizing the mean volunteer hour values provided by the nonprofit times in 2016 for indiana at 23. 38 per hour, the total value of volunteers hours contributed (not including board members) equaled 63,126 in 2017. This program continues to grow annually, and is a vital asset to lrwp and the number of programs and stewardship work we are able to perform at our preserves. Lrwp's board approved a strategic plan for 2016 - 2018 in january of 2016. In every strategic plan that lrwp develops there are two major priority areas for our organization that align with our mission: protection of wetlands and stewardship of our properties and wetland education for our community. Each year we must provide stewardship care of 1,227 acres of land at our preserves. This is an increase in acreage from 2014 of 227 acres. Providing stewardship care of our restored wetland nature preserves is vital to not only the lrwp mission but to the community as a whole. Without such care, most to the preserves' benefits to wildlife, our community, and visitors would be lost. In regard to stewardship of our wetland preserves, the plan called for staff to annually update property management plans identifying projects and budgets for each property by february 1 for the coming year. The second identified priority of our mission is our free, wetland-focused, high-quality nature education programs to our community. Attendance figures are recorded; programs are continually be reviewed and improved upon for effectiveness, efficiency, and broad outreach to all ability levels of participants. The strategic plan is reviewed annually. As each year progresses the timetable specified in the adopted 3 year strategic plan may be adjusted due to time constraints or additional projects that were undertaken, thereby causing an adjustment to the strategic plan timeline. In 2018 the board of director's will be establishing the 2019-2021 strategic plan; with the leadership of task force chair and board member john goss. Each year the board of directors reviews the annual budget based on income, expense, and organizational needs with the executive director. In addition, financial statements are reviewed by the finance committee and presented at board meetings. Lrwp's board of director's began working with mr. Mike stone of impact strategies as part of a foellinger transform grant awarded to lrwp in june of 2016. As the board and executive director met to develop and clearly define the roles of the board and staff it became apparent through meeting with various lrwp board committee's that it was imperative to the organization that we revise our financial procedures and policies due to significant growth of the organization over the last few years. Upon receiving approval from the foellinger foundation in march 2017, focus shifted in 2017 from succession planning to the revision of financial procedures and the adoption of the fiscal policy manual for lrwp. The drafts of both documents were completed in late 2017 with preliminary approval granted at the january 17, 2018 board meeting with final adoption of both documents occurring in may, 2018. Leadership succession planning began in 2017 with the clarification of the roles of board officers and members, committee roles and responsibilities, and staff roles and responsibilities. This work will continue in 2018 and 2019. Actions taken as a result of community partnerships in 2017: 1. Continued to participate with allen county trailblazers to encourage hiking, with an eagle marsh trail included in the list of trails hikers could use to earn an act medallion. 2. Participated with hoosier riverwatch, an indiana dnr program, to do quarterly water testing at sites along the graham-mcculloch ditch and little river. Lrwp also conducts monarch monitoring through the university of minnesota's monarch larva monitoring program. 3. Made presentations to groups such as indiana master naturalists, university of saint francis students, ipfw students, ymca's seniors group, and more. 4. Worked with canterbury middle school, allen county public library, emmaus st. Michael school, st. Jude, la petit academy, whitney young, youth social services, wellspring, fort wayne community schools, easter seals/arc, ican, scout groups, and more on youth programs. 5. Supervised summer-semester student interns from the ball state university and ipfw along with working with professors to bring college classes from ipfw, university of st. Francis, huntington university and goshen college to eagle marsh for field trips, and facilitated research at eagle marsh by, ipfw.