Fox Island To Fully Open In Autumn
By mid-to-late September, all of Fox Island County Park will be back open to the public, but it won’t look the same as before the derecho of June 13, 2022.
The derecho storm’s strong winds uprooted or knocked down so many trees, they no longer form a canopy on the north side of the park, located on Fort Wayne’s southwest side at 7324 Yohne Rd.
Visitors will see large sections of the sky through the bare patches instead of the mature forest that had grown over the glacial sand dune and the dry river bed area.
“You can’t rush mother nature,” County Parks Supervisor Jeff Baxter said. “It’ll take 40 to 50 years for things to get the way they used to be, but in the meantime, people can watch nature come back.”
The front area of the park opened in June 17, 2024, after the county had cleaned up much of the 605 acres, Park Manager Natalie Haley said.
Work is being done on the northern parts of the trail system, making it an asphalt path that can accommodate wheelchairs and other devices, making it the only handicapped accessible trail in the park.
Baxter said the construction equipment needs to be removed and grass to be established before visitors can safely use the trail.
Haley said that because 270 acres of the park are a state nature preserve, the park followed hands-off management of the land since it was founded in 1974 and let nature take its course. Work centered on maintaining trails and removing invasive species, which state laws allows.
However, Fox Island lost a minimum of 4,000 trees over the entire park during 20-30 minutes of the derecho storm, she said. Fort Wayne International Airport measured wind speeds of 98 mph.
Because of the sandy soil in the dune area, some trees were uprooted. Some were snapped. Areas of mature trees had bigger canopies to catch the winds, and falling trees created a domino effect, bringing others down, Haley said.
It took about 10 days to access the park again, then staff members spent about a week-and-a-half counting the trees that had fallen across trails but stopped when they reached 1,105, she said. It was evident the park would remain closed for a while.
The usual procedure when a tree fell across a trail would be to move it off to the side and let nature recycle itself. However, that process would close the park for many years or decades, she said.
Allen County consulted with state nature preserve officials, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service. They acknowledged that the amount of invasive vegetation in and especially around the park would be a problem if nature was left to itself.
The mature forest that got ravaged into a succession area wouldn’t regenerate naturally.
“We would see a massive influx of invasive and non-native plants, and it would not restore the woods,” she said.
Fox Island received government permission to allow loggers to come remove dead trees. They took about 3,500 full logs out during two years, and The Indiana National Guard moved about three acres of debris, she said.
In spring 2023, volunteers helped plant 7,100 native tree saplings from the DNR nursery. Last year, the park received about $2 million from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to make the paved trail connecting the nature center to the northern trails.
However, closing for about two years meant a loss of about $70,000 in income for Fox Island, Haley said.
While the landscape has changed, Fox Island’s reopening offers a rare chance for visitors to witness the slow, steady rebirth of a forest. Each visit will be a snapshot in nature’s long journey of renewal.
Upcoming Programs and events at Fox Island in September:
- The park will host morning hikes from 9 to 10:15 a.m. every Tuesday through Sept. 9
- Sept. 6: Full Corn Moon Drum Circle, 6-7 p.m., Full Corn Moon Hike, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
- Sept. 9: Preschool Story & Hike, 10:30-11:30 a.m. ($3 fee)
- Sept. 12: Mid-Day Drum Circle, 1:30 -2:30 p.m.
- Sept. 17: Preschool Story & Hike, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
- Sept. 20: Monthly Birding Hike, 9-10:30 a.m., Autumn Equinox Event, 1-3:30 p.m.
More information about events and activities, can be found at allencountyparks.org/about/program-listing .
> Read Full Biography
> More Articles Written By This Writer
- Fox Island To Fully Open In Autumn - August 15, 2025
- City Holds Conference For Neighborhood Leaders - August 15, 2025
- Residents Envision The Community’s Future - July 18, 2025