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Three holders, told whole, and a measured negative for the CDP itself. ACRES Land Trust is Indiana's oldest and largest local land trust, incorporated 2 March 1960: twelve founders became its first members, each contributing five dollars, toward preserving land forever — James M. Barrett III, Ethyle and William C. Bloch, Jane H. and Thomas E. Dustin, A. K. Hofer, Florence S. and Dr. John W. Klotz, Elmer Phelps, Glenn W. Poe, Werner R. Reifsteck and Robert C. Weber. Founded as the Allen County Reserves, it took its first land in 1961 — Edna W. Spurgeon's donated woodland in Noble County — and renamed itself ACRES, for Allen County REServes, when the map outgrew the name; its founders helped create the Indiana Nature Preserve Act of 1967, and it now serves 27 counties across north-east Indiana, southern Michigan and north-west Ohio. Its service area's western reach does not, on its published preserve list, include a holding in St. Joseph County: ACRES is the region's founding trust but not a Granger-ground holder. Shirley Heinze Land Trust is the holder that does reach this county. Established in 1981 as the Shirley Heinze Environmental Fund, by an endowment from Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Seidner in memory of Dr. Shirley Heinze of Ogden Dunes, it now protects more than 4,000 acres across Lake, Porter, LaPorte, St. Joseph, Starke and Marshall counties (its own anniversary materials also carry a 3,300-acre figure; both stand). Its St. Joseph County holding is Lydick Bog Nature Preserve, west of South Bend on U.S. 20: one of the last sphagnum bogs in Indiana, a state-dedicated nature preserve with over 630 plant species identified — carried at 176.46 acres in the DNR nature-preserve guide, then enlarged by a 93.78-acre addition (funded by the state's Next Level Conservation Trust and St. Joseph County) bringing the trust's announced total to 271 acres, with a 1.4-mile loop trail, a boardwalk over the wetland, new connecting trail to Pine Road and the Indiana Dinosaur Museum's trail system, and a further mile of trails reported in 2026. The Izaak Walton League's St. Joseph County Chapter is the third holder and the closest wild ground to Granger's west side: chartered January 1924, it holds over 120 acres (its own materials also say over 130 acres; both stand) at Laurel and Darden roads — Juday Creek, the St. Joseph River, three ponds, wetlands, marsh and woodland — private, member-held, and walked by generations of members on named trails (see the interpretive-trails article). The county GIS parcel layer and both trusts' preserve lists were checked for the CDP itself: no land-trust, league or conservancy holding lies inside the Granger CDP boundary as of November 2026. The corridor the register asked for is therefore a ring, not a parcel: Lydick Bog west, the Izaak Walton grounds north-west, and — east, in the next county — Elkhart County Parks' Cobus Creek, on a cold-water trout stream of the same Juday-Cobus creek country that drains Granger itself.
Sources: ACRES Land Trust, Our History (incorporated 2 Mar 1960; twelve founders named; $5 each; Spurgeon donation 1961; Nature Preserve Act 1967; 27 counties) and preserve list (no St. Joseph County holding); Shirley Heinze Land Trust (founded 1981, Seidner endowment; county list incl. St. Joseph) and Lydick Bog announcements (93.78-acre addition; 271 acres total; Next Level Conservation Trust / county funding; trail and boardwalk works, 2026); Indiana DNR nature-preserve guide, Lydick Bog (176.46 acres; 1.4-mi loop); Izaak Walton League St. Joseph County Chapter (chartered Jan 1924; 120 / 130 acres — conflict printed; 20400 Darden Rd); Elkhart County Parks, Cobus Creek (84 acres).