Group clears wetland debris

ELLETTSVILLE -- Beneath a gray, fog-filled sky, 25 people trudged through 10-foot high, rust-colored brush Saturday morning to clean up the Bean Blossom Bottoms Nature Preserve from the effects of a tornado that ripped through the area last month.\nSycamore Land Trust volunteers along with other Bloomington residents cleaned up the 700-acre wetland in Ellettsville.\nThe group is a non-profit conservation organization that acquires land around south-central Indiana and preserves it. The organization holds work days, which consist of clean-up projects, tree planting and trail establishments five-to-10 times a year.\nThe group's goal was to drag out debris from a once-nearby trailer and barn that last month's tornadoes had strewn around 100 acres of the Bottom's brush. SLT officials said they plan to plant more trees in the area, which will require knowing that chunks of debris would interfere.\nVolunteers hauled out everything from mangled trailer siding to a child's plastic basketball backboard -- its fire engine red rim ripped in two. \nWorkers piled the trash along the dusty, gravel road that angles through the Bottoms, where the Monroe County Solid Waste Disposal collects it.\nSLT board member David Welch organized the day and helped instruct volunteers like Marta Dieber and Aimee Osmundsen, two Bloomington High School North students who helped out as part of an environmental science class project.\n"I was trying to find a way to help with the tornado damage and this was the easiest way to get involved," Dieber said.\nWelch and the BHSN students stood staring at three aerial photos of the Bottoms that showed where the wreckage was scattered.\n"This is basically an Easter egg hunt," Welch said. "Find trash and bring it here."\nThe day's workers also included several School of Public and Environmental Affairs students and ten Phi Sigma Kappa pledges, who needed 12 community service hours for the fraternity, freshman pledge Jeremy Manion said. \nScott Struck, an SLT land steward, led the Phi Sigma Kappa men in removing sheet metal from the dilapidated barn throughout the morning. \n"There was a whole lot to do," Struck said. "We only got a fraction of it done, so there is still a need for more work at the site." \nThe Bean Blossom Bottoms, the SLT's flagship property, is a hardwoods ecosystem, spouting Sycamore and Cottonwood trees. Welch said it is important to preserve this type of land because its soil makes it in prime farming demand.\n"When you find a big piece like this, you try to go after it and protect as best as you can," Acquisitions co-Chair Dave Hudak said.\nStruck said one of his goals during the day was to help preserve wildlife -- which the group did by removing debris that would have obstructed plant growth. \n"It's about trying to maintain the biological integrity of these areas," he said.\nThe Bottoms contain a great blue heron rookery and are home to five endangered species, such as the Kirkland snake and Barn owl, and myriad migrant birds, Hudak said.\nThe SLT, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and private individuals all own pieces of the preserve.\nSince its 1990 foundation, the SLT trust has acquired over 3,000 acres in 34 properties.