Sycamore Land Trust opens new preserve on Lake Monroe

The 48-acre Amy Weingartner Branigin Peninsula Preserve opens to visitors Monday. An eight-vehicle parking lot is ready for hikers, bird watchers and others who want to walk through the hardwood forest.

Just north of the causeway on Lake Monroe, the preserve is a small portion of what was once Indiana University Alumni Association’s Shawnee Bluffs camp, which encompassed 164 acres. The camp was sold in 2003 and was developed into residential sites. The new preserve is nestled among the residential properties on Rush Ridge Road off Ind. 446.

The land trust acquired the property in 2015 with help from funds from three families, the Bicentennial Nature Trust, the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County and members of Sycamore Land Trust. Volunteers with the Hoosier Hikers Council built a trail of about a tenth of a mile that connects the parking lot area to an old road that travels along a ridge down to the point of a peninsula along the shore of Lake Monroe.

Although the land was acquired a year ago, getting it ready for the public to use takes time. The reasons include ensuring neighbors are comfortable with people traveling to and using the property, making sure the animals and plants that live on the land are healthy enough to sustain human traffic and preparing trails and parking lots for public use.