Restoring the Urban-Industrial Forest of Gary

The Wildlife Habitat Council is working with United States Steel Corporation's Gary Works and the City of Gary Department of Environmental Affairs to make industrial habitats and urban habitats accessible to elementary schools, high schools and adults learning and training in land restoration. The goal is to develop and support a model collaborative approach to sound conservation of urban-industrial savanna and forest in Gary and at Gary Works by building on efforts by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Gary Works employees. 

Great opportunities await children, youth and adults who participate in this exciting program. We look forward to building connections with the residents of Gary and northwest Indiana, and joining forces in learning about the surroundings through participation in the restoration of local habitats. 

This collaborative includes local and regional environmental education and ecological restoration agencies and groups. Funding comes from the State Urban and Community Forestry Program of the USDA Forest Service with technical support from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry, and in-kind support from United States Steel Corporation and the City of Gary Department of Environmental Affairs.

Ecological restoration and management is provided by the Taltree Arboretum & Gardens and The Nature Conservancy’s Southern Lake Michigan Rim Project Office. The Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center conducts hands-on teacher training in the local ecology, as well as lead educational and restorative activities at Gary Works’ wildlife habitat areas. 

These agencies, companies and organizations are dedicated to address the ecological viability and connectivity of lands, educational needs of children, young people and their community, as well as provide technical training in urban forestry and ecological restoration.

Activities

Gary Brownfields Job Training Program: Employees at Gary Works are developing an ecological restoration plan for 30 acres of Black Oak Savanna and Prairie located at the steel mill, including reclamation of 2 acres of slag compacted land.

Mighty Acorns: In cooperation with the Mighty Acorns program, Gary Inner City Elementary Schools, including George Kuny and Ivanhoe Elementary Schools, and West Side high-school students participate in the ecological restoration of a 5-acre Oak Savanna remnant located on their Gary Public School District property, next to Ivanhoe Elementary School.

Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center: Once a year, an overnight visit is planned for Gary school children and youth at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center is a regional resource dedicated to residential environmental education. With the 15,000 acres of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as its backyard, learners of all ages can participate in programs that develop an appreciation and understanding of the relationship between people and the environment along the southern shores of Lake Michigan.

Taltree Arboretum & Gardens: The Taltree Arboretum & Gardens is unique outdoor and indoor arboretum laboratory that will provide educational training of Gary children and youth in native trees and shrubs, ecological restoration, and native landscaping.

Students Restore the Past While Looking to the Future

Almost one year from the start of a working partnership of community and conservation organizations Restoring Gary’s Urban-Industrial Forests program continues to demonstrate the value of blending collaborations between community and industry in urban ecological renewal. Participants in the program include the USDA Forest Service, Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), United States Steel Corporation and Wildlife Habitat Council.

5th grade students at Ivanhoe Elementary School and WHC Program Manager, Daniel Goldfarb, play a game identifying bird calls of birds common to native black oak savanna and dune habitat. The game is part of the Mighty Acorns naturalist curriculum focused on habitats and ecosystems of the Calumet Region of Illinois and Indiana.

In Gary, Indiana, natural areas surrounding U.S. Steel's Gary Works and Ivanhoe Elementary School contain remnants of native black oak (Quercus velutina) savanna habitat typical of dune and swale ecosystems prevalent throughout the city’s urban-industrial landscape. Restoration activities at these locations draw from the landscape ecology concepts that even seemingly distant islands or tracts of natural areas are interrelated in sharing their plant and animal species.

These two sites also share human energy and collaboration as part of their ecological interrelations. This collaborative effort is based on the simple idea that the native black oak savanna habitat found at both sites offers, both children and adults from the Gary community, a learning laboratory for ecological restoration ideas and opportunities.

Students from George Kuny Elementary School attended outdoor Mighty Acorns workshops hosted at the Gary Works wildlife habitat and led by the Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center (IDELC). This ecology program opens the door to children raised in an urban environment to study nature and build proficiency in complex concepts like the interdependence of species and the rich natural history of the region. Outdoor laboratory facilities are used on-site to foster environmental education opportunities for inner city school children.

The students visited the facility several times over the course of the school year to take part in environmental education and outreach on the native black oak savanna. Fully green wild lupine (Lupinus perennis) and Jacob’s-ladder (Polemonium reptans) seemed to burst from a barren dune landscape as the children were welcomed to the site.

The federally endangered Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) is one of the many native insects that live at the Gary Works. The site is WHC certified for both habitat and Corporate Lands for Learning. Photo © Otis Enterprises.

The topography of the Gary Works property is characterized by sand dunes and oak savannah with extensive wildflower cover, including wild lupine, a critically important plant species for the federally endangered Karner blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), an inch-long butterfly. The vegetative quality of the area is very high, which is necessary to attract this insect, due to the thriving presence of a variety of native plant species.

Low areas between the dunes contain occasional ponds, which furnish habitat for Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingi), an Indiana state endangered species. The Miller Woods area, which is adjacent to Gary Works’ eastern border, has been found to host an abundant population of the turtles.

The students worked side by side with U.S. Steel employees to cut vines and pull weeds, finish a nature trail and engage in hands-on learning activities on biodiversity.