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Cedar Creek Corridor
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About Cedar Creek Corridor

Photo by Tony Fleming

For decades, ACRES Land Trust has supported willing landowners in protecting the Cedar Creek Corridor, a twenty mile stretch of the creek from Auburn, Indiana, to its terminus into the St. Joseph River near Leo-Cedarville, Indiana. Our office, in the former home of Tom and Jane Dustin, two of our founders, overlooks the creek from an 80-foot ravine in northern Allen County.

Watch our video on Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek is one of only three rivers in the state to be designated in Indiana’s Natural, Scenic and Recreational River System under the 1973 Act of the same name. ACRES helped the waterway earn this designation in 1976.

Designation extends 13.7 miles, from County Road 68 to the creek’s confluence with the St. Joseph River in Leo-Cedarville, regulating development in the floodway. ACRES works to expand this measure by protecting land within and beyond the floodway.

The Cedar Creek corridor is the largest forested corridor remaining in Allen County. Riparian (riverbank) and upland forests dominate the area, along with wetlands and gravel hill prairies.

The yellow lady’s slipper orchid blooms in small clumps within the Cedar Creek Corridor. Photo by Joanna Stebing.

Vegetation in the Corridor includes the beautiful yellow lady’s slipper orchid, gray beardtongue, tall meadow rue, golden Alexanders and the only populations of Indian paintbrush and yellow puccoon documented in Allen County.

The Cedar Creek Corridor is home to Great Blue Herons; ACRES protects the land where an active rookery with over 75 nests is located. Photo courtesy Ellie Bogue, News-Sentinel

Wildlife found in the Corridor includes bobcats, turkey, mink, multiple freshwater fish species, river otters, Pileated Woodpeckers, Bald Eagles and Great Blue Herons (including an active great blue heronry with over 75 nests), plus Green Herons and Yellow-crowned Night Herons.

Learn more about Cedar Creek Corridor plant and animal life and how this has changed over time, in this blog post from an article by ACRES founder Tom Dustin:

Cedar Creek: View from the Canopy

Cedar Creek occupies a tunnel valley—a deep, gorge-like canyon cut by meltwater flowing under pressure beneath the glacier. The tunnel valley is trenched into the Huntertown aquifer system, the primary groundwater source within the corridor.

Learn more about how the Tunnel Valley was created from Hydrogeologist Tony Fleming:

Cedar Creek’s Tunnel Valley

Recreation in the Corridor includes canoeing, kayaking, fishing, and hiking along ten miles of trails on closed loop systems within individual properties. As ACRES protects more land, linking trail systems will create a unique backcountry hiking experience.

The extension of Fort Wayne Trail’s Pufferbelly Trail will connect the Corridor to downtown Fort Wayne, Auburn and eventually, Angola. Partner organizations are also evaluating the potential for canoe and kayak trails through the Corridor.

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Learn more

  • Watch ACRES Land Trust’s Cedar Creek Corridor video
  • 2019 Cedar Creek acquisition update
  • ACRES Land Trust plants pace-setting 55,000 trees, reforesting 106 acres
  • Tom & Jane Dustin built a legacy from this home
  • Digging our region’s natural groove: Cedar Creek’s Tunnel Valley
  • View from the Canopy
  • 2018 summer land management intern notes
  • A surprise encounter
  • ACRES Land Trust, partners, fight invasive Japanese stiltgrass

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Hours & Info

1802 Chapman Road
PO Box 665
Huntertown, IN 46748
1-260-637-2273
[email protected]
Office | M-F, 9 -4
Due to the nature of our work, please call ahead to ensure someone will be here to greet you.

Trails | Open dawn to dusk, daily, thanks to member support
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