Winter

As snow begins to fall, the ACRES land management crew gets ready to curl up with hot chocolate around the office fireplace where they will enter hibernation, a state of deep sleep maintained until early spring… ah…just kidding. The Land Management crew is hard at work during winter treating non-native invasive plants, managing properties and …

For staff development, relationship building … and fun! …  the ACRES staff enjoys seasonal outings for each equinox or solstice. We aim to stay close to the land and the communities we serve, so we take these days out, closing the office and hitting the road. We meet regional partners, businesses, educators, farmers, or other …

from the Back Page A snippet from ACRES’ members-only Quarterly Winter 2016 | Vol. 55-No. 4 “I think this is the throne room,” whispers my seven-year-old companion, peering into a small clump of trees. She’s keeping a sharp eye out for the snow queen. Tree limbs droop under the weight of sparkling snow, bowing gracefully …

The heart of winter: She is listening… The frozen air is transparent, smooth and brittle; it rings like a knifeblade against bone. The sound of her breath, as it freezes, is a soft murmuring, like cloth on cloth. The muffled wingbeats of a snowy owl rise and fall, reverberating down long corridors of dream, deep …

Others may think of cold, biting wind and want to curl up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. No matter what winter brings this year, think about going outside and visiting an ACRES’ preserve. You can visit any of the open preserves, but parking areas at the following will be maintained …

When you serve ACRES donors and members in protecting land, you’d better spend some time walking it, wondering over it – and working it. You also need to appreciate natural cycles. In 2016, ACRES Land Trust launched quarterly staff development days in honor of seasonal changes. The ACRES Office is closed for the spring and …

Last January I walked alone in a preserve, enjoying the brittle cold, the silence of fresh snow. Cedar Creek flowed beside me, black, swift and clear beneath a fragile film of ice shelves. And then—fur and bright eyes. Two river otters poked their heads over ice on the creek’s far bank. We three held still, …

Nancy: My first glimpse of the world came during an Indiana blizzard blowing a foot of fresh snow over the ground. I have felt at home in the winter landscape ever since. Although Mother Nature feigns sleep at this time of year, undercover she is alive with activity. She beckons into her wondrous, quiet world …