Em’s Conservation Easement | Photo: Central Indiana Land Trust
CEDAR GROVE, Indiana (28 February 2024 | Central Indiana Land Trust) – Thanks to your steadfast support, we have protected one of the rarest of landscapes. A new conservation easement permanently conserves a slump barrens in southeast Indiana. 
Decades of work went into protecting this 51-acre site, known as Em’s Conservation Easement. It is one of our highest conservation priorities.
Barrens, a globally rare landscape type, are characterized by poor, shallow soils. Their fossiliferous limestone can reveal life forms from millions of years ago.
Eighteen rare and endangered species have been found at Em’s CE, including state-threatened Viburnum molle. The plant is indicative of the site’s longtime appeal to the conservation community. In 1946, eminent forest ecologist E. Lucy Braun collected this plant from the site. Her specimen is in the National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Institution.
Conservationists have studied this beautiful place and attempted its protection for decades. After working with the family over several years, we are thrilled to protect this singular landscape.
We often say that the places we protect took thousands of years to evolve… but could be destroyed in a day. We are so grateful that your generosity enables us to work to save special places like these.
We would like to thank Atira Conservation and the donors to the Evergreen Fund for Nature for making this project possible.
Em’s Conservation Easement supports nesting habitat for the cerulean warbler (above) and twinleaf (left) on Em’s Conservation Easement. Photos: Central Indiana Land Trust