the BEACON Newspaper, Indiana 3-18web | Page 5

March 2018
THE BEACON
Page 5A
Hundreds of Acres Added to the Oxbow
A lot of work needs to be done, and many decisions need
to be made following Oxbow, Inc.’s recent purchase of
hundreds of acres of floodplain.
Map showing existing and
new property protected by
Oxbow, Inc.
Continued from page 4A
of it. Nonprofit is a misnomer;
you have to make money,
or you have to at least break
even; nothing exists if you’re
losing money over time.”
With that premise in mind,
two separate funds were cre-
ated; one to ensure the fiscal
health of Oxbow, Inc., and
the other to secure continued
protection of the Oxbow Con-
servancy Area. The Endow-
ment Fund supports the work-
ings of the Oxbow, Inc. office
located on Walnut Street in
downtown Lawrenceburg,
while the goal of the newly
begun Perpetuity Stewardship
Drive is to raise $500,000 by
the end of 2020.
Dr. Seymour says, “We’re
getting used to the fact that
we’ve bitten off a big chunk
and we’ll have to deal with
it, but we’ve done that before
and we’ve stepped up.”
He explains, “What we’re
going to be doing over the
next three years is raising
stewardship funds. We real-
ized about fifteen years ago,
when we started acquiring
enough property, that we
actually had to take care of it.
That was back when we went
from 200 acres to 700 acres in
the course of about two years.
Now with the expenditure of
going to the east side of 275,
and with the extreme amount
of things that have to be done
over there … we really need
to have dedicated funds for
stewardship now.”
When asked if the preserva-
tion of the Oxbow is a long-
term certainty, Dr. Seymour
replies, “No protection is
ironclad. First of all, we are
obligated by our status as a
501c3 to protect the property
as best we can in perpetuity,
but that also means we’re a
business, and like any other
business the 501c3 can fail
… so you look to the future
and typically look to make
sure it will be protected for at
least 50 years ahead of where
you are now - so that’s where
we’re moving in time.
“We do need people to get
more involved, so we’re actu-
ally looking for some board
members that are interested in
the financial portion. Up to this
point, we have been what we
call a working board. We’ve
had most of our expertise in
nature, preserving nature, but
now we need a lot of expertise
in public relations, managing
money - we’ve got some but
not anywhere near enough.”
The Oxbow also needs
volunteers. Dr. Seymour
explains, “We’ll be using a lot
of volunteer crews to clear out
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YOUR LOCAL OFFICE(S):
4 Village Rd
Batesville, IN 47006
812-934-4626
1801 N Greensburg Crossing
Greensburg, IN 47240
812-663-7608
131 Eastern Ave
Batesville, IN 47041
812-623-1310
15-0105
These volunteers share hard work, friendly conversation,
and a deep love of the Oxbow. (Photo courtesy of Oxbow, Inc.)
the area. It’s a little bit spe-
cific because we don’t want
just anybody in there because
we’re going to be running
heavy equipment up and down
the roads … so backhoes are
in there tearing up the stuff
that’s buried in the soil, and
picking up the heavy pieces,
hauling out docks - but once
it gets down to, ‘Gee, let’s go
pick up bottles,’ Boy Scouts
can help with that, but I don’t
want a bunch of Cub Scouts
running around while we’re
riding backhoes and tractors
through there, so there will be
a limited number of individu-
als we recruit to do this.
“There’ll be another set of
individuals who will plant
survey this whole thing to see
what kind of plants we’ve got,
and to locate invasive patches;
locate areas where we need
to do restoration - basi-
cally make a map of what will
come back naturally, make a
map for intensive control ...
all those decisions will have
to be done next year.
“We’re also going to survey
birds through here. There’s a
group that’s going to be com-
ing through and surveying
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the nesting birds, as well as
survey what passes through
… I think we’re going to find
all different kinds of nests and
birds more or less patterning
some of the things we see
over at Shawnee Lookout; not
unusual for Southern Ohio.
So that is part of next year’s
activities … finding out what
we’ve got.”
For more information about
the Oxbow, please call 812-
290-2941, or visit www.oxbow-
inc.org, or www.facebook.com/
oxbowinc/
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