Warren County

Black Rock

Black Rock is a 45 acre state dedicated nature preserve, protecting a portion of the very rare sandstone/ siltstone barrens. The southern exposure combined with the thin acid soils slows the growth of trees on the site.

Activities

County: Warren

Carr Island

Carr Island is an island in the Wabash River adjacent to NICHES’ Weiler Leopold Nature Preserve. The island is home to a mature bottomland hardwood forest, with a mixture of silver maple, cottonwood, hackberry, and sycamore along with an understory of sedges and green headed coneflowers. 

Activities

County: Warren

Crow’s Grove

Crow’s Grove features a rare and striking grove of old growth pine. In addition to the pine, the mature trees include:  white, black and shingle oaks, eastern red cedar, and bitternut hickory. The southern flat-top upland comprises a woodland of younger trees: black and shingle oak, black cherry, eastern red cedar, white oak sassafras and ironwood.

Activities

County: Warren

Fall Creek Gorge

Fall Creek Gorge is one of Warren County’s premiere sites of scenic inspiration and ecological importance. The preserve has long been celebrated as a local natural treasure due to the striking hydrological features carved into its sandstone bedrock foundation.

Activities

County: Warren

Gladys & Al Wright Rock Creek Nature Reserve

80 acres situated a mile southeast of West Lebanon in Warren County.  Rock Creek bisects the mostly wooded acreage. The creek runs over bedrock and forms tiny waterfalls in some places; while in others it has cut through sandstone leaving small sculpted cliffs. Eventually, the creek makes its way into the Wabash River.

Activities

County: Warren

Hewitt Estate

The Hewitt Estate includes 1.7 miles of frontage on both sides of Mud Pine Creek, the largest tributary of Big Pine and a healthy smallmouth bass stream. Along the clear rocky creek, high in the canopy is an active bald eagle nest. A small great blue heron rookery lingers above colorful spring blooms of phlox, columbine and saxifrage that grace the banks.

Activities

County: Warren

Honey Branch Bluff

Honey Branch Bluff includes a 35 foot sandstone bluff crowned with native white pine and ornamented with red cedar jutting over Big Pine Creek.

Activities

County: Warren

Kohnkes’ Little Pine Valley

A beautiful 33 forested acres in Little Pine Creek valley, Kohnkes’ Little Pine valley sits just a short distance west of NICHES’ Weiler-Leopold Nature Reserve.

Activities

County: Warren

Rhus Radicans

A 20-acre tract of land along Big Pine. The property features a small mature oak/ hickory woodland on the bluff south of the creek, mature floodplain trees in the riparian corridor, and mature trees along the east and west property lines. A graminoid and forb ground layer is well developed throughout the property.

Activities

County: Warren

Swanson’s Bluff

Swanson’s Bluff is prime example of Big Pine Creek habitat, with examples of oak/ pine woodlands, sandstone bluffs and calcareous seeps.

Activities

County: Warren

Weiler-Leopold Nature Reserve

Situated along the Wabash River in eastern Warren County, the reserve features open oak savannas, wooded slopes, old fields dotted with boulders deposited by glaciers and a wonderful space to connect with nature. Among the natural area are 100+ acres of bottom-lands planted with trees in May of 2000 returned to native forest habitat, and a 12-acre grassland area restored to native tall grass prairie.

Activities

County: Warren

Williams Woods

Williams Woods protects forested and restored prairie lands along Possum Run in western Warren County, near the historic interface of the grand prairie and oak woodlands. Possum Run is a gravel bottom stream winding between lowlands and till banks on its way to the Wabash River.

The land includes upland oak-dominated woods and restored prairie on the western bank of Possum Run and lower mixed hardwood forest to the east…

Activities

County: Warren