Niches Land Trust breaks ground on stewardship headquarters building
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Lafayette-based Niches Land Trust broke ground Wednesday on its $1 million stewardship headquarters in Warren County.
Executive Director Shannon Stanis said in addition to housing the organization’s stewardship team, the facility will serve as a working storage space to support restoration projects, hiking trails, and outreach events that expand community access to local natural areas.
“We know without land stewardship and carefully managing the land, habitats will degrade over time and biodiversity will be lost,” Stanis said. “It is only through active management of the land that biodiversity thrives and ecosystems can be sustained into the future.”
Stanis told Inside INdiana Business that the new facility is crucial for the organization to reach its land protection goals.
“It’s one thing to protect a prairie from becoming a parking lot, but if you don’t actually actively care for that prairie, it will degrade over time,” they said. “So with the stewardship facility, we are going to have a centralized location to store all of the supplies necessary to take care of the properties in our protection.”
Currently, the land trust rents storage space for its equipment, and that space is completely full, Stanis said. They added there is also more value for the organization in owning a dedicated space that has space for the equipment it has today, with room for future growth.
“That equipment [includes] things like chainsaws and brush cutters for removing invasive species, as well as equipment for our prescribed fire program,” Stanis said. “Many of our habitats here in west central Indiana are fire dependent. So if we don’t actively put fire back in the landscape during the dormant season, those habitats will degrade and decline over time.”
The facility will also house equipment used to maintain hiking trails for public use.
“We are here to provide places for the community to enjoy, appreciate and learn about natural areas, and trails are an important component of that. As more folks get out to natural areas and see the wonderful beauty of the natural areas in west central Indiana, they feel a stronger sense of place to their community.”
Niches Land Trust protects nearly 4,800 acres of land in west central Indiana. The organization said the new facility is a vital step in its plan to nearly double its current land holdings to 8,000 acres by 2030.
The facility is being build on previously developed land that Niches purchased in 2020 and was used as a livestock transfer station. The organization said having the opportunity to redevelop the site aligns with its values of careful, sustainable development in the community.
Niches has raised $930,000 toward the project, with about $450,000 coming from North Central Health Services in West Lafayette. Additional funding was provided by the Roy Whistler Foundation and the McAllister Foundation, as well as individual donors.
“Niches’ initiative aligns with our 2022-2024 Community Health Needs Assessment Implementation plan goal of improving community health by encouraging healthy choices and reducing disparities related to activity and nutrition,” Stephanie Long, CEO of North Central Health Services, said in written remarks. “By providing increased access to high-quality green space, we hope our community will see improvements in mental health, physical health, and overall quality of life.”
Construction on the facility is expected to be complete in 2025.