Hello Friends,
Additional working group virtual meetings will occur as follows:
- Agriculture: 12/9/2020 -- 1:00-2:30pm
- Environment: 12/9/2020 -- 3:00-4:30pm
- Recreation: 12/10/2020 -- 1:30-3:00pm
Please fill out the short,
voluntary survey
by December 4, 2020. Thank you!
If you have any questions please contact:
For questions, please contact:
Allen County - Therese Brown, 260-449-7555
DeKalb County - Allen Haynes, 260-925-5620 X3
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PRESS RELEASE
Cedar Creek Collaboration
Listening, Learning, Exploring
Conservation through Community Leadership is a Purdue Extension program designed to assist communities discuss and address natural resource issues and opportunities. Local government leaders from Allen and DeKalb Counties are currently engaged in this program as they continue their discussions of one of our most valuable natural resources, Cedar Creek. They are inviting you to join the process.
Are you interested in natural resource management, conservation, agriculture, and land use planning issues related to Cedar Creek? Specifically in the area designated as an Indiana Natural, Scenic, and Recreational River? You are encouraged to view the October 6, 2020 kick-off information session at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVDyFfCE778.
Who should participate? This program is designed for local leaders and officials, representatives from nongovernmental organizations or residents who want to take part in natural resource decisions in the Cedar Creek Watershed. This watershed is located in parts of Allen, DeKalb, and Noble Counties.
As you can imagine, Covid-19 is altering how this public participation program is being implemented. To keep the project moving forward, future meetings are being moved to an on-line format. To participate, after watching the kick-off meeting, complete the survey at
https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6PbQpAorhOcbBXL.
We are looking for individuals to be a part of three working groups focused on Agriculture, Environment, and Recreation. To volunteer, complete the contact information at the end of the survey so we can provide you with information and instructions for upcoming meetings.
Links to both the October 6 Kick-off meeting and Survey are available on the Allen and DeKalb County websites. This is important work. Your time, consideration, and participation is appreciated!
Online meetings for the three interest groups are scheduled as follows:
- Agriculture - December 9, 2020; 1-2:30p.m. on-line
- Environmental – December 9, 2020; 3-4:30p.m. on-line
- Recreation – December 10, 2020; 1:30-3:00p.m. on-line
-Interested individuals are welcome to participate in more than one working group.
-Each working group will have a couple of on-line meetings with the facilitators
-Additionally, it is anticipated that each group will need to convene independently on-line 1-2 times or as needed to complete “homework” as part of this planning process
PDF Version
June 2020
Friends,
In the spirit of the day I will name five (5) benefits of sheltering at home along Cedar Creek during the pandemic:
- The season of Baltimore Oriole sightings is longer and more beautiful than I knew;
- Many people have been out walking the roads – and cleaning up the trash;
- The slow emergence of green is wonderful to behold;
- We had more time to look up and identify the observed wildflowers, roadside plants, birds and herps; and
- There was more time to reflect upon all the other benefits of living within the Cedar Creek Corridor, including our responsibility to act on its behalf.
Thus, I will report on some important initiatives affecting our home place, a few of which are delayed by the necessities of the coronavirus response, but that will become more urgent in the second half of 2020.
First, this Fall an alliance of organizations will team up to apply for a grant to write a new and updated
Cedar Creek Watershed Management Plan.
This will also involve funding to support long-term scientifically derived data for Cedar Creek.
Second, again specific to Cedar Creek, public and individual stakeholders planned a series of public meetings that were to begin in April. This effort was sparked by renewed interest in preserving the unique characteristics of, and solving the problem of recreational access to, Cedar Creek downstream of Dekalb CR68 to its confluence with the St. Joseph River. Led by facilitators from Purdue Extension, this “Conservation through Community Leadership” process will involve visioning sessions and workshops for all those interested in natural resource conservation, agriculture, and land use planning issues related to Cedar Creek. The group may reschedule virtual sessions for this Fall.
Third, and more broadly, Friends of Cedar Creek has been part of the newly “organized” group called
Maumee Watershed Alliance, which seeks to coordinate the efforts of many interest groups acting all within the Maumee River watershed.
All these initiatives are related, overlapping, and intertwined, and each will contribute to understanding the ecology of the place we call home—the
Cedar Creek Corridor. There are great (both many and important) opportunities for each of you to become involved in one or more of these initiatives. In addition, you should explore websites of other organizations that work in and along Cedar Creek, such as
ACRES Land Trust,
St. Joseph River Watershed Alliance,
Maumee River Alliance,
Dekalb County Soil and Water Conservation District, and
Save Maumee Grassroots Organization. These will lead you to updates on the initiatives mentioned above, and, I hope, will motivate you to learn, explore, and educate your neighbors more for the benefit of Cedar Creek.Hope your Summer is rewarding and safe!
Hope your Summer is rewarding and safe!
David Van Gilder
President, Friends of Cedar Creek
