05/29/2026
South Bend Venues, Parks & Arts will host an open house on the Rum Village Park plan on Wednesday, June 10, 5:30–8:00 p.m. at the Technology Resource Center (TRC) at 1165 Franklin St. #100, South Bend, IN.
If you can attend, please do so to share your thoughts. You can read Wild Ones South Bend's previously shared open letter regarding the plan here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HkFXRUiAq/
The Board of Wild Ones South Bend has released a letter to Mayor Mueller and the South Bend Common Council members on the proposed plans for Rum Village Park.
If you want to voice your thoughts the next Park Board meeting is on Monday, March 16 at 5:00 p.m. at the Howard Park meeting center at the corner of Jefferson Blvd. and St. Louis St. The bike path may not be on the agenda, but at the latter portion of the session, "privilege of the floor" will enable any individual to speak on any subject (not formally on the agenda) for 3 minutes each.
March 10, 2026
To Mayor Mueller and South Bend Common Council Members:
We urge you to not put in a new mountain biking trail through Rum Village, and to keep all garden beds and plantings in Rum Village native.
Wild Ones South Bend is the local chapter of a national nonprofit that promotes planting native plant species to protect and restore biodiversity, improve air and water quality, and provide wildlife with quality food and shelter. We have more than 250 members from the local community, all of whom understand that native plants are the only food and habitat sources most wildlife can truly benefit from. Many of our members also visit and hike in Rum Village and appreciate the chance to see Indiana’s natural beauty.
Thank you for the opportunity to present our informed opinion on the Rum Village Master Plan. We are glad to see Rum Village getting attention as a gem of our local parks system. As our members can attest from their own experience, Rum Village is a mecca for locals, who appreciate it as a quiet oasis in our urban area, a cool place on a hot day, and a terrific wildlife-viewing locale.
Rum Village is one of the few remaining fragments of old growth forest in our region. As the iNaturalist—a citizen-science nonprofit that allows visitors to record the plants, animals, funguses, etc. that they see—has 983 observations from Rum Village, representing 408 separate species. This includes 119 plant species, from the smallest spring ephemerals like delicate spring beauty to the largest trees such as Indiana’s state tree, the glorious American tuliptree.
These plants, and the wildlife that depend on them, would be negatively impacted by the proposed 3-mile mountain biking trail through mature forest. Mountain biking trails can go almost anywhere; why route them through sensitive habitat that can never be replaced? Once the mature forest is disrupted and fragmented, its function as habitat is degraded and it can no longer sustain as many plants and animals as it did previously. Trails, and the bicycle wheels on them, also serve as vectors for introducing invasive plants—which would counteract all the work that so many volunteers have done and are doing to remove the invasives in the park.
We also urge you to keep all the introduced plantings in Rum Village native only. Any garden beds and other plantings that are added should feature plants native to this county only. Most native wildlife requires native plants as a source of nutritious food, as a host plant for butterfly caterpillars, as shelter for nests, and more. We would be happy to work with you to suggest great planting options.
Wild Ones urges you to respect the mandate that South Bend Venues Parks and Arts has in its 2021 Natural Resource Management Plan to “manage natural resources with a concern for fundamental ecological processes … including the abundance, diversity, and ecological integrity of the plants and animals.” This plan itself references “ecologically sensitive areas such as the wooded areas within Rum Village.” If we enjoy seeing blooms, birds, bumblebees, and butterflies, we need to preserve as much of their habitat as we can.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Libby Feil
Vice President and Membership Chair
On behalf of and approved by the board of Wild Ones South Bend
