Lydick Bog Nature Preserve

Acquired 2016; expanded 2026

The newest ground: The bog is the newest hiking ground in this section, and it grew this year. Lydick Bog Nature Preserve, at 25898 US 20 on the city's western edge, protects one of the last remaining sphagnum bog habitats in Indiana — the Department of Natural Resources' own description of the property. The Shirley Heinze Land Trust acquired the preserve in 2016 — 178 acres in the trust's account, 176.46 acres in the DNR's preserve guide — and it was dedicated as an Indiana State Nature Preserve in January 2019. The DNR's guide describes the walk as it then stood: from the parking lot, "a 1.4 mile moderate loop trail includes wetlands, hilly upland forest, and ravines." A multipurpose pavilion followed in 2020. By the spring of 2026 the trust counted the existing system at 1.73 miles of paths, and the preserve had outgrown its first bounds: a 93.78-acre addition brought the total protected acreage to 271 acres, the DNR purchasing a conservation easement on the new ground for $250,000 from the state's Next Level Conservation Trust — it already held an easement on the original 176 acres from 2019 — with the county's council and commissioners contributing and the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County funding the trail expansion.

On 1 May 2026 the DNR and the trust celebrated the expansion on the ground, and the trail work was its substance: about a mile of new trail, extending the system and linking the bog west to Pine Road and to the Indiana Dinosaur Museum's own trail system — the two trail systems now connected, with a new gravel parking area and trail kiosk at their border — and a wetland trail segment that had often been mucky replaced with a boardwalk. The preserve's figures thus stand in sequence, each dated: a 1.4-mile loop in the DNR's guide, 1.73 miles of paths before the expansion, and roughly another mile added in 2026 — printed as a sequence, not summed into a new total the trust has not published.

Sources:

1. Shirley Heinze Land Trust, Lydick Bog Nature Preserve pages and releases, heinzetrust.org (the 2016 acquisition and 178 acres; the January 2019 dedication; the 2020 pavilion; the 93.78-acre addition and 271-acre total).
2. Indiana DNR, Nature Preserves guide, Lydick Bog Nature Preserve (the 176.46 acres; the sphagnum bog; the 1.4-mile loop trail).
3. Indiana DNR and Shirley Heinze Land Trust, expansion celebration, 1 May 2026, as published by the DNR (the 93 acres, the $250,000 Next Level Conservation Trust easement, the 2019 easement, the county and foundation contributions, the extended trail system).
4. Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, "Trail Expansions and More at Lydick Bog," 3 June 2026 (the additional mile of trails; the Pine Road and Dinosaur Museum connection).
5. South Bend Tribune outdoor column, May 2026 (the existing 1.73 miles of paths; the boardwalk replacement; the Pine Road parking and kiosk).