ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION TARGET ESTIMATION AROUND ENGQUIST NATURE PRESERVE

This project analyzed soil parameters from multiple locations owned by the Shirley Heinze Land Trust in Porter County, Indiana, some of which are being ecologically restored or have been restored in the past. The samples were collected from prairie, forested wetland, riverine wetland/floodplain ecological areas, and current agricultural areas to be restored to each of those same environmental types. To measure the effectiveness of the rehabilitation mentioned above, this project compared bulk density, soil chemistry, organic matter, aggregate stability, particle size analysis, and permanganate-oxidizable C tests from the agricultural area to those from restored and natural settings. This allowed the estimation of targets and a baseline to assess the effectiveness of future rehabilitation projects. The results helped us to learn more about restoration projects on plots of land that have been used for agriculture for an extended period of time and can help other environmental projects find effective ways of rehabilitating formerly cultivated land.