Excerpted from nwi.com…

Work on the Porter County (Indiana) Ecology Trail is set to begin in early 2008. When the five-phase project is completed, there will be a drivable ecology and heritage trail linking five notable sites — Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve, Ogden Gardens, Taltree Arboretum & Gardens, and the Kankakee River.

The trail will include interpretive signs at each site with references to similar ecology and nature at the other sites. These future driving and hiking trails could benefit homeschooling families and other school groups interested in learning more about certain kinds of animal, botanical, geological, and/or topographical subjects.

Phase I also includes designing maps for the walkable trails at the five sites, developing a drivable trail that links the five sites via specific themes, and identifying other sites in the county that could become part of the drivable trail.