The Ross Reserve has for 56 years provided Purdue University with an invaluable
teaching and research environment. On the bank of the Wabash River, it
is a forest rich in biological diversity and in history of ecological study.
The Reserve was established in 1949, thanks to the vision of plant ecology
professor Alton A. Lindsey and colleagues, and has been the focus of 15
doctoral dissertations, dozens of scientific publications, and numerous
masters and undergraduate honors theses. It harbors nearly 400 species
of vascular plants and more than 100 species of vertebrate animals.
When first protected, the Reserve was a patchwork of mature but disturbed forest mixed with agricultural fields and clearings. Rapid regeneration of the clearings and slow maturation of the forest have produced a haven for wildlife that is rare in the midwestern landscape.