Following the sale of 42 acres of University of Evansville (UE) property to Wesselman Woods, the nature preserve will grow by 90 acres — including former city property in the par-three golf course.
Wesselman Woods, UE and the City of Evansville made the announcement at the site of the former course right next to the old growth forest, Monday afternoon.
Right now it’s just a grassy field but in several decades it will be a new forest, populated by native plants and trees already growing in Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve, with an effort to weed out invasive species.
“This is going to be three distinct habitats, we're going to have a meadow, a bottomland, forest and a wetland,” said Wesselman Woods Executive Director Zach Garcia. “And within that, we're hoping to create a new nature center as well, that will function as a visitor center community gathering space in an urban Ecological Research Center.”
Garcia stressed that this is a very long-term project and that visitors will need to be patient as it starts to look like weeds taking over the once-manicured field.
“I think we're going to have to let it kind of grow wild for a few years, create plots and start seeing what comes up within those plots,” he said.
“Amidst the challenges posed by climate change, it's essential that we secure a better future now, of course, we need to be thinking about 2023 and what we're doing today, but we also need to be thinking about 2073 and how our decisions today are going to be affecting (future) generations,” he said during the news conference.
An urban old growth forest gaining acreage is rare, Garcia said. “To gain 90 Acres is even rarer.”
This most recent addition to the ‘woods was sold by the UE for $2 million to Wesselman Woods aided by a $1 million state grant.
The land is bordered by Division Street, the Lloyd Expressway and Stockwell. On the north side is Wesselman Woods, on the west side is the armory, according to UE.
UE President Christopher Pietruszkiewicz said it was important that the land be sold to an entity that would use the land to enhance the city.
“And it took us four years to get to the right place,” Pietruszkiewicz said. The land was purchased in the late 1960s to develop into an athletic facility, but acquiring land closer to campus made this unnecessary.
He said the funds will be used constructing the new intramural athletic field on campus.
