05/29/2026
Flashback Friday! Oh, the beauty of nature…. Between Winamac and Pulaski off State Road 119 lies the Berns-Meyer Nature Preserve, a 20-acre woodland with a story rooted in community generosity. In 1979, two local couples, Orville & Wyoma Berns and Verlin & Janet Meyer, donated the property to the state, where it has been part of the State Nature Preserve system under the Department of Natural Resources ever since.
The couples had purchased the land in 1968 from Harry and Lucile Roth. The property had previously belonged to Lucile's parents, the R. O. Degners, who had used the small forest to supply timber for their sawmill.
Over the years, the couples opened the land to annual field trips for local schoolchildren.
The preserve is an old growth forest featuring two distinct habitat zones: a drier, upland woods of red and white oaks, sugar maple, and shagbark hickory, and a low, wet woods with swamp white oak, red maple, and basswood. Some trees in the preserve are estimated to be over 300 years old.
Pictured here from 1989 are daffodils in Meyers Woods, located just northwest of the preserve.
[Source: Pulaski County Sesquicentennial Book]
If this has you curious about Berns-Meyer, the Iris-Elm Garden Club is hosting a guided hike at the preserve next Wednesday, June 3, meeting at 10:00 a.m. at the entrance gate. There's also a photographic presentation, "Four Seasons of Berns-Meyer Nature Preserve," at the library this Tuesday, June 2, at 10:00 a.m. We hope you'll join us!
Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/pulaskilibrary/posts/pfbid026BEDu2EnEVFX52uvAxVHEGr5roCTbHFpNuSb3F1jgJjYxVnvA91wPkLAzfT2EGSXl
