ASLE Field Trips
For all trips, remember that Indiana weather in June can get very hot. Please bring an adequate supply of water, unless you know water is provided,
as well as (for outdoor activities) sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, and eco-friendly insect repellent.
Wear adequate clothing as well as shoes. You take part in these trips at your own risk; ASLE and Indiana University assume
no responsibility whatsoever. If you have any questions about these trips,
contact Christoph Irmscher at
christoph.irmscher 
gmail.com.
Please do not contact the leaders of individual field trips or the organizations hosting them;
all questions should be addressed to Christoph Irmscher
(christoph.irmscher gmail.com).
NOTE: ASLE will be providing free aluminum water bottles at registration, which you can use for toting water on your field trips!
FRIDAY AFTERNOON, June 24
1. Birding at Lake Monroe, guide Lee Sterrenburg (limit 40), 1:00-6:00 pm
$18 (Lunch NOT included)
Lake Monroe is Indiana's largest lake. Located near the Indiana University campus, it features a scenic stone-bluffed shoreline and wooded hills.
The lake was completed by the Corps of Engineers in 1965, using a creek named Salt Creek because of the salt deposits in this area, which allowed
for a lucrative trade. The Monroe Lake area was, until the early 1700s, undisputed Miami tribal land, even though occupied by both the Miami and
Delaware tribes. The lake area was acquired from the Miami as part of Harrison's Purchase, by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, on September 30, 1809.
After a successful reintroduction program, Lake Monroe today is the birding and eagle-watching capital of Indiana, with more than 300 documented
species of birds as well as year-round resident pairs of bald eagles. Lee Sterrenburg, a former English professor and one of the most revered names
in Indiana ornithology, will lead the group.
The bus will leave Bloomington at 1 pm and return to Bloomington about 6pm. Please eat prior to leaving or bring a lunch to eat on the bus.
Tour Leader: Lee Sterrenburg, famed Indiana ornithologist.
2. Exotic Feline Rescue Center, Center Point, Indiana (limit 40), 1:00-6:00 pm
$25 (Lunch NOT included)
Since its founding in 1991, the EFRC has served as a nationally recognized leader in big cat rescue, conservation and care. In the past 19 years
the EFRC has grown from its humble beginnings with only three exotic felines to today caring for over 223 cats, representing nine different species.
It is one of largest rescue centers in the United States for abused, unwanted and neglected exotic felines. It is an unforgettable but emotionally
draining experience.
Website: http://www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org/home.html
The bus will leave at 1pm and arrive back about 6pm. Please eat beforehand or bring a lunch to eat on the bus.
3. Sycamore Land Trust (Limit 20), 1:00-6:00 pm
$40 USD (Lunch NOT included)
The mission of Sycamore Land Trust (SLT) is to preserve the disappearing landscape of southern Indiana. Working with private landowners to protect
their family heritage, SLT helps maintain the unique character of our home. SLT has now conserved over 5,500 acres on more than 66 parcels and helped
plant over 55,000 trees. We will visit the Sycamore Land Trust’s Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve (BBB). The preserve represents
a high-quality hardwood wetland. It has been dedicated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as an Indiana Nature Preserve.
The National Audubon Society has certified it as an Important Bird Area. Visitors experience a diverse mosaic of habitats, including hardwood forest,
emergent marsh, sedge meadows, and old fields reverting to forest.
Trees and shrubs in the bottomland include green ash, buttonbush, red osier dogwood, pin oak, swamp white oak, shellbark hickory, and American
sycamore. About 1000 trees were planted by SLT staff and volunteers. Over the next hundred years, the oaks and hickories will gradually give way
to more shade-tolerant red maple and silver maple, unless other disturbances open the canopy for oaks and hickories to flourish.
BBB is home to two great blue heron rookeries and an active eagles’ nest. Other animals protected in this highly endangered ecosystem
include American Woodcock, Wilson's Snipe, Marsh Wren, Sedge Wren, and the state-endangered Kirtland's snake. Prothonotary Warblers and Wood Ducks
nest in holes in mature trees, and beavers help maintain the wetland hydrology. This property was purchased by SLT with funds raised from SLT members,
several foundations, and the Indiana Heritage Trust program (which is funded by income from Indiana's environmental license plates).
The preserve has a two-mile-long loop of wooden trail, so your folks can venture deep into the wetland without getting wet, as long as
we don’t experience flooding at that time. You can read about the preserve at
www.sycamorelandtrust.net/bbbnp.html.
Sycamore Land Trust has prepared an experience for us that will offer a combination of physical activity and educational programs.
John Lawrence, SLT’s Assistant Director, and Dr. Vicky Meretsky, SLT board member and Associate Professor of Conservation Biology
and Applied Ecology at Indiana University’s School for Public and Environmental Affairs, will both be available to lead this educational
walk for up to 20 people that afternoon. Here are some ideas about what will be discussed: Native Indiana birds and the migratory birds that rest
in the bottoms on their way up and down the continent; Native wetland plants and the foreign/exotic invasive plants
we work to control; Amphibians and reptiles of the bottoms.
The bus will leave at 1pm and arrive back by 6pm. Please eat beforehand or bring a lunch to eat on the bus.
4. Trip to Community Orchard in Bloomington: An Environmental Justice Tour with Ross Gay
(Limit 20), 1:00-6:00 pm
$25 USD (Lunch NOT included)
Tour of community gardens in Bloomington, led by Ross Gay, Assistant Professor of Poetry at Indiana University, the author of two books of
poetry: Against Which (CavanKerry, 2006) and Bringing the Shovel Down (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011). Additionally, he's
on the Board of Directors of the Bloomington Community Orchard, and has been an intern with Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard's gardening program.
He is a certified permaculture designer and has been certified by the Grow Organic Educator Series here in Bloomington. Ross will arrange meetings
with the folks in charge of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, the Bloomington non-profit food pantry whose mission is to provide healthful, wholesome
foods to people in need, as well as with nutrition and gardening education leaders in Bloomington. The trip will likely include a tour of one or
two of the Cupboard gardens, which is one of the places where the mission of the place gets most beautifully
expressed. He’ll give a tour of the new community orchard, which will include some conversation about the various modes of orcharding,
discussion of the various trees and shrubs we've planted, and a pretty thorough explanation of how the orchard came into being, and where we see it
headed. If we go to the Cupboard garden(s), Stephanie Solomon and/or I will give some history on the Cupboard itself, how it functions as a pantry
in Bloomington, in addition to a discussion of the various ways we’ve tried to imagine these gardens having the most long-term, positive impact
on our community. There's a good chance there will be some fruit to eat at both places--and if not, the vision of fruit to come.
The bus will leave at 1pm and arrive back by 6pm. Please eat beforehand or bring a lunch to eat on the bus.
5. Trip to the T.C. Steele site (limit 35), 1:00-6:00 pm
$20 USD (Lunch NOT included)
The T.C. Steele State Historic Site includes the last home and studio of Indiana artist Theodore Clement Steele (1847-1926) and his second wife Selma Neubacher Steele (1870-1945). Steele, a member of the noted “Hoosier Group” of American Impressionist painters, was attracted to Brown County by the scenery he encountered while hiking in the area. The site’s 211 acres of wooded hills and ravines inspired the artist to paint some of his most famous works. Website: www.tcsteele.iorg
The bus will leave Bloomington at 1pm and arrive back about 6pm. Please eat beforehand or bring a lunch to eat on the bus.
6. Sustainability at the Lilly Library (Limit 30), 2:30-5:30 pm
Free. No Lunch provided, please eat before tour. Note that food and drinks are not allowed in the libraries. Personal belongings
need to be checked. Participants must use pencils inside the library.
Founded in 1960, the Lilly Library is one of the world’s foremost rare books, manuscripts and special collections libraries in the world.
The tour, conducted by Christoph Irmscher, Professor of English and a History of the Book specialist, will focus on the Lilly Library’s
unparalleled holdings in natural history and history of science. Participants will get to see all four volumes of the Lilly’s Double
Elephant Folio Birds of America, Mark Catesby’s Natural History, first editions of Bartram’s Travels, Emerson’s Nature,
Darwin’s Origin of Species, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, autographs by Thoreau, Ernst Haeckel, and Scott Russell Sanders,
and a privately printed first edition of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit. You will also be given the opportunity to view
the Lilly’s Gutenberg Bible and sample the Lilly’s Jerry Slocum collection of mechanical puzzles, the only one of it s kind in the
world. See http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/blog/.
Tour Leader: Christoph Irmscher
7. Tour of the Thomas Hart Benton Murals
Nanette Brewer, the Lucienne M. Glaubinger Curator of Works on Paper at the IU Art Museum, has agreed to give us a tour of the spectacular and provocative mural cycle Thomas Hart Benton produced as the state of Indiana's contribution for the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. Benton had intended the work to be the largest mural cycle ever attempted. The entire cycle takes up 2600 square feet. According to a contemporary, Benton painted roughly 38 square feet a day. When they were completed, the murals were so large that a section of a wall had to be taken out to move them out of the gallery in which they were painted. On the way to Chicago a highway bridge was too low for the trucks to pass, and a gate at the fairgrounds had to be taken apart to accommodate them.
The tour will include the Cinema murals (2:30 to 3:00); the Woodburn Hall murals (3:00-3:30), and the Auditorium murals (3:30-4:30). Nan is a nationally known expert on Benton, and I am very pleased that she has agreed to make herself available. The murals have been quite controversial ever since 1933, if for different reasons. One of the panels features the KKK, which Benton (accurately) considered to be a part of Indiana history (Hoosiers were not impressed). Benton's work is interesting from an ecocritical point of view, too, since it is so relentlessly focused on the human exploitation of Indiana's natural environment (by 1900, only 8 percent of Indiana remained covered by remnant forests, as opposed to 87 percent at the beginning of the century).
For more about Benton, see http://www.indiana.edu/~benton/.
8. Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction (Limit 15), 2:30-5:00 pm
Free. No lunch provided.
Founded in 1947, just before the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948, by pioneering sex researcher Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey,
the Institute is a leader internationally in scholarship, teaching and service in sexuality, gender and reproduction. The Institute's mission is
to maintain this leadership by developing and nurturing a community of interdisciplinary scholarship within and beyond Indiana University.
Participants will learn about the Institute’s mission, visit the archives, and view the extensive art collection.
Website: http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/
Tour leader: Jennifer Bass
9. Visit to the lab of Professor Armin Moczek, Biological Sciences (Evolution of Developmental Mechanisms),
(limit 15) 2:30-5:00pm
Free. No lunch provided.
Professor Moczek’s lab, which is on the cutting edge of evolutionary research, addresses a fundamental question in biology: how do novel
phenotypic traits originate and diversify in nature? Mozcek uses a wide range of approaches to address this question from different perspectives,
and on different levels of biological organization: behavioral and ecological approaches; developmental techniques and growth manipulations
in the lab and field on experimental and natural populations; finally, developmental-genetic and molecular tools. Moczek’s research,
which addresses the question as to how new species emerge, has been covered by U.S. News and World Report, The Economist, and The National Geographic.
Website: http://sites.bio.indiana.edu/~moczeklab/index.html
Tour Leader: Harald Parzer.
10. Hiking at McCormick’s Creek State Park (limit 53), 1:00-6:00 pm
$24 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory)
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
Explore the spectacular limestone canyon, flowing creel, and scenic waterfalls that highlight Indiana’s first state park.
Hike trails feature diverse forest trees, spicebush, wildflowers. Trip includes an accessible trail at the recently renovated nature center.
Participants will be given the option to explore the history of conservation in Indiana as the climb an old fire tower, use shelter houses
or cross the stone arch bridge erected by the Civilian Conservation Corps. They may also want to examine the historic Statehouse Quarry
near White River, which furnished limestone used for the Indiana Statehouse.
Food provided; participants must bring their own water.
11. Canoeing at Lake Monroe (limit 20)
$37 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory), 1:00-6:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
Join us for an adventurous paddle on Lake Monroe near the Deam Wilderness Area, in the Hoosier National Forest. IU Outdoor Adventures
will provide all canoeing equipment, instruction, transportation, and lunch. Just bring your swimsuit, shoes that can get wet, and a towel.
We'll paddle, swim, and relax.
Food provided; participants must bring their own water.
12. Kayaking at Lake Monroe (limit 12)
$45 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory), 1:00-6:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
Description: Similar to canoe trip, but in coastal kayaks. Join us for a sunny, summer paddle on Lake Monroe near the Deam Wilderness Area,
in the Hoosier National Forest. We'll provide all the kayaking equipment, transportation, instruction, and lunch. Just bring your swimsuit,
shoes that can get wet, and a towel. We'll paddle, swim, and relax.
Food provided. Participants must bring their own water
13. Rock-climbing in Southern Indiana (limit 12)
$45 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory), 1:00-6:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
This climbing trip is a local tour of the closest crag to Bloomington. We will teach you basic climbing and rappelling skills, while getting outside
and off campus. Join us and visit one of the most unique climbing sites in the U.S.!
Food provided. Participants must bring their own water.
14. Horseback Riding and Hiking in Brown County State Park. (limit 30)
$48 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory), 1:00-6:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
Join us on a horseback tour of the woods of Brown County State Park. This 3.3 mile trail (approximately one hour) will teach you the
basics of Western Trail riding and acquaint you with the unique flora and fauna of the park. After our ride, we will have an opportunity
to check out a few of the hiking trails (over 12 miles of easy to rugged hiking trails meander through Brown County State Park.
Food provided. Participants must bring their own water.
15. Bouldering at IUOA's indoor wall (Three -2-hour sessions of 15 people per sessions), 1:00-6:00 pm
$15 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory)
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
The IUOA Bouldering Wall is nearly 1,000 square feet on three walls up to 11’ high. Bouldering is a fast-growing style of rock
climbing that involves short, but challenging, routes on vertical to overhanging surfaces above a thickly padded floor. Its popularity stems
from its simplicity. There are no ropes, no harnesses, and no technical equipment – just the rock, you, and your imagination!
Food provided. Participants must bring their own water.
16. Movie Screenings on Campus: Green Fire and Canyonlands (limit 50), 2:30-5:00 pm
Free (No Lunch provided). Room Location TBA
Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time was produced in partnership between the
Aldo Leopold Foundation,
the Center for Humans and Nature,
and the US Forest Service. The film provocatively examines Leopold’s thinking,
renewing his idea of a land ethic for a population facing 21st century ecological challenges. Leopold's biographer, conservation biologist
Dr. Curt Meine, serves as the film's on-screen guide.
Green Fire describes the formation of Leopold’s idea, exploring how it changed one man and later permeated through all arenas of conservation.
The film draws on Leopold’s life and experiences to provide context and validity, then explores the deep impact of his thinking on conservation
projects around the world today. Through these examples, the film challenges viewers to contemplate their own relationship with the land community.
The high-definition film will utilize photographs, correspondence, manuscripts and other archival documents from the voluminous Aldo Leopold Archives
as well as historical film and contemporary full-color footage on location, including landscapes that influenced Leopold and that he in turn influenced.
The film also features commentary and insight from some of today’s most recognized and credible scholars and conservation leaders,
including: three of Aldo Leopold’s children—Nina, Carl, and Estella, Leopold scholars, noted environmental writers, scientists,
humanities experts, public policy leaders, business leaders, and leaders of non-profit groups inspired by Leopold.
Website: https://www.aldoleopold.org/greenfire/index.shtml
Canyonlands: Edward Abbey and the Defense of Wilderness is a documentary about writer Edward Abbey and environmental battles
over the nature and use of the Western deserts. Abbey worked as a seasonal ranger and forest lookout in Western parks and forest-lands including
Lees Ferry, Arches National Park, and Grand Canyon, and Glacier National Park. He wrote in praise of wilderness, and he called attention to the
destruction of the desert landscape due to dam-building, road-building, mining, and industrial tourism. The documentary offers a provocative
combination of archival films and contemporary recordings, including interviews with Abbey's friends Jack Loeffler, Ken Sleight, Jim Stiles,
Katie Lee and Kim Crumbo. Sample available at http://www.edabbey.com
The screening will be introduced by the project collaborators, Roderick Coover and Lance Newman.
SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 26, Post-conference trips
1. Goose Pond, Indiana. Birding Trip with Lee Sterrenburg.
(limit 30)
$34 (lunch included, BYO water), 6:00 am-1:00 pm
Note: driving distance 52 minutes one way.
Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area (GPFWA) is an 8000 acre wetland restoration project in Greene County, Indiana, one of the largest undertakings
of that kind in the U.S. Goose Pond is one of the premier birding destinations in Indiana. Since its creation in 2000 and subsequent restoration,
birds and birders have been flocking to the area. Goose Pond now has the largest King Rail population in the entire inland migratory range of
the species. Last year, seven species--Northern Pintail, Great Egret, Green Heron, Greater Yellowlegs, White Ibis, and the first confirmed
state record of a Roseate Spoonbill (which stayed 97 days)—produced all time Indiana state record highs. Also counted were 27
species of shorebirds, 17 bald eagles and three nesting was “instantaneous and has exceeded all expectations in terms of numbers and
diversity.” Goose Pond is located in the Mississippi flyway, a corridor for migrating birds, which, thanks to the project, is being re-established.
Goose Pond is attracting some of the most diverse array of birds that anyone has ever seen in the state.
Lee Sterrenburg, a former English professor and one of the most revered names in Indiana ornithology, will lead the group.
Food will be provided. Please bring your own water.
2. Hiking at McCormick’s Creek State Park (limit 53)
$24 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory), 8:00 am-1:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
Explore the spectacular limestone canyon, flowing creel, and scenic waterfalls that highlight Indiana’s first state park.
Hike trails feature diverse forest trees, spicebush, wildflowers. Trip includes an accessible trail at the recently renovated nature
center. Participants will be given the option to explore the history of conservation in Indiana as the climb an old fire tower,
use shelter houses or cross the stone arch bridge erected by the Civilian Conservation Corps. They may also want to examine the historic
Statehouse Quarry near White River, which furnished limestone used for the Indiana Statehouse.
Food provided; participants must bring their own water.
3. Canoeing at Lake Monroe (limit 20)
$37 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory), 8:00 am-1:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
Join us for an adventurous paddle on Lake Monroe near the Deam Wilderness Area, in the Hoosier National Forest. IU Outdoor Adventures
will provide all canoeing equipment, instruction, transportation, and lunch. Just bring your swimsuit, shoes that can get wet, and a towel.
We'll paddle, swim, and relax.
Food provided; participants must bring their own water.
4. Kayaking at Lake Monroe. (limit 12)
$45 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory), 8:00 am-1:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
Similar to canoeing adventure, but in coastal kayaks. Join us for a sunny, summer paddle on Lake Monroe near the Deam Wilderness Area,
in the Hoosier National Forest. We'll provide all the kayaking equipment, transportation, instruction, and lunch. Just bring your swimsuit,
shoes that can get wet, and a towel. We'll paddle, swim, and relax.
Food provided. Participants must bring their own water.
5. Rock-climbing in Southern Indiana (limit 12)
$45 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory) 8:00 am-1:00 pm
Led and organized by IU Outdoor Adventures
This climbing trip is a local tour of the closest crag to Bloomington. We will teach you basic climbing and rappelling skills, while getting outside
and off campus. Join us and visit one of the most unique climbing sites in the U.S.!
Food provided. Participants must bring their own water.
6. Horseback Riding and Hiking in Brown County State Park (limit 30)
$48 (lunch included, BYO water mandatory) 8:00 am-1:00 pm
Led and organized by Indiana University Outdoor Adventures.
Join us on a horseback tour of the woods of Brown County State Park. This 3.3 mile trail (approximately one hour) will teach you the basics of
Western Trail riding and acquaint you with the unique flora and fauna of the park. After our ride, we will have an opportunity to check out
a few of the hiking trails (over 12 miles of easy to rugged hiking trails meander through Brown County State Park.
Food provided. Participants must bring their own water.
