Table of Contents

Foreword: A Sense of Place
Perspective: The Indiana That Was
Part 1. The Indiana Landscape
The Terrain and Its Origin
1. Of Time, Rocks, and Ancient Life: Bedrock Geology
2. Indiana on Ice: The Late Tertiary and Ice Age History of Indiana Landscapes
3. The View from the Window: Physiography
4. Cradle of Life: Soils
5. Lifeblood of the Land: Water
6. An Endangered Natural Resource: Wetlands
7. Underground World: Caves
8. Our Changing Climate

The Vegetation and Fauna: History and Development
9. Remembrance
10. In the Glacier’s Wake: Patterns of Vegetation Change Following Glaciation
11. Origins: The Deciduous Forest
12. Walking in Wilderness
13. Nature’s Recovery Act: Nothing Succeeds Like Succession
14. Aggressive Invaders: Exotic Plants
15. Indiana Vertebrate Fauna: Origins and Change
Part 2. The Natural Regions of Indiana
16. The Natural Regions: An Introduction
The Southern Hill Country
17. Limestone Ledges and "Crawfish" Flats: The Bluegrass Natural Region
18. Sinks, Slopes, and a Stony Disposition: The Highland Rim Natural Region
19. Land of the Cliff Dwellers: The Shawnee Hills Natural Region
The Southern Lowlands
20. A Taste of the South: The Southern Bottomlands Natural Region
21. Sandhills and Old Glacial Till: The Southwestern Lowlands Natural Region
The Central Flatlands
22. Where Tallgrasses Waved: The Grand Prairie Natural Region
23. Forested Swell and Swale: The Central Till Plain Natural Region
24. The Bed of a Glacial Lake: The Black Swamp Natural Region
The Northern Lakes and Moraines
25. Half Land, Half Water: The Northern Lakes Natural Region
26. Dunes, Swales, and Glacial Ridges: The Northwestern Morainal Natural Region
27. The Southern Tip of the Big-Sea Waters: The Lake Michigan Natural Region
The Riverine System
28. Waters in Motion: The Big Rivers Natural Region
Part 3. The Biota of Indiana
Diversity and Reproduction
29. A Diversity of Forms
30. Reproductive Strategies
The World of Plants
31. A Wealth of Spores: Non-Flowering Plants
32. Wildflowers and Spring
33. The Seed Strategy: Higher Plants—An Introduction
34. The Life and Times of the Tuliptree
35. The Diversity of Indiana’s Flowering Plants
36. What’s the Use?
The World of Animals
37. The Small and the Many: Invertebrates
38. An Abundance of Insects
39. Beneath the Water’s Surface: The Fishes
40. Creepers, Crawlers, and Hoppers: Amphibians and Reptiles
41. Wings across the Sky: Birds of Indiana
42. Our Native Mammals
43. Biogeography: Of Organisms, Habitats and Time
Part 4. The Changing Landscape
44. Change: The Essence of Nature
45. Prehistoric Peoples of Indiana
46. The Wave of Settlement
47. History of Public Conservation in Indiana
48. Names on the Land
Part 5. Protecting What Remains
49. Search and Study
50. Spreading the Word
51. Protection Beginnings
52. Inventory and Preservation
53. Stewards of Nature
Part 6. Prospectives
54. Whence and Whither—A Question of Priorities and Values
55. Connections: The Humans-Landscape Linkage
56. The Indiana of Today: Its Background and Challenge
57. The Future of Natural Indiana: Can We Imagine It? Guide It?
58. Overview
Supplementary Materials
A. Public Lands in Indiana
B. Dedicated to the State Nature Preserves Indiana
C. Species Extirpated from Indiana
D. Species Endangered in Indiana
E. Species Nomenclature
Reference Materials
F. Glossary
G. Suggested Readings
Biographical Sketches of Authors
Index

Promotional Information

Lavishly illustrated, environmentally focused account of the natural world in Indiana

About the Author

Marion T. Jackson is Professor Emeritus of Ecology at Indiana State University, former chairman of the Indiana Chapter, The Nature Conservancy, and past president of the Indiana Academy of Science. He is author of 101 Trees of Indiana: A Field Guide (IUP, 2004). He lives in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Reviews

"This is an idyllic marriage of rich scholarship and pretty pictures. It takes you from what Indiana was like when prehistoric mound builders were around in southern Indiana to today's farm-land-gobbling interstate cloverleaf." David Mannweiler, Indianapolis Star "For those interested in Indiana's natural heritage--and those who would preserve it--this is must reading and an indispensable reference." Lynn Van Matre, Chicago Tribune