Fern Station Nature Preserve

Until 2022, Putnam County was home to four nature preserves, including the 157-acre Fern Cliff Nature Preserve, a retired sandstone quarry from which the sand that created the first green-colored Coca-Cola bottles came. Dwarfing Fern Cliff, the 570-acre Fern Station Nature Preserve will become a fifth area of protected Putnam County land thanks to years of effort by the Central Indiana Land Trust.

In August, 2022, the Friends of the Park board hosted Central Indiana Land Trust Assistant Director Stacy Cachules and the Trust’s Land Protection Manager, Stephanie Paine Crossin, to learn about plans to create the Fern Station Nature Preserve. They explained the plan calls for five unrestricted acres, of the 570, to accommodate events, parking and other locally generated ideas. The duo said it is unusual to gain access to 570 acres at one time. The Trust normally protects land in 40- to 100-acre parcels; however, it has been talking with the owner of the Fern Station land for more than 15 years.

Fern Station is the Trust’s largest single land purchase in its more than 30-year history. It received a $3.1 million $3-to-$1 matching grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Benjamin Harrison Trust. The Nature Conservancy pledged part of the needed matching funds, and the Trust successfully tapped local, state and regional sources for the balance. Putnam Parks & Pathways, the City of Greencastle and others wrote letters of support for the Trust’s grant application, which helped the application’s score with the IDNR.