Carpenter Nature Preserve's First November: A Former Golf Course Still Mid-Transformation

What does a former golf course look like in its first November as a nature preserve? Out on South 900 East, Zionsville gets to see for the first time this fall.

Carpenter Nature Preserve opened to the public this summer on the 215 acres that used to be Wolf Run Golf Course. It's being restored as a mix of prairie, woodland, wetland and creekside habitat. What you can walk today is Phase 1, the visitor layer. The larger ecological work, especially the restoration along Eagle Creek, is still ahead. That makes this November more useful than it sounds, because it's the last stretch of cold-weather walks before the land starts to look different.

How a golf course ended up in public hands

The preserve's timeline explains why it opened in stages:

1. 2021. Jim and Nancy Carpenter, the longtime Zionsville residents who founded Wild Birds Unlimited, bought the former Wolf Run Golf Course for $5.5 million. According to the Town of Zionsville, they saw a chance to protect it from development.
2. May 2023. The Town Council approved a $5.5 million bond to cover the purchase plus early engineering, survey and construction documents.
3. 2023. After an updated appraisal, the Carpenters sold the property to the town for $4.52 million, which the town described as a $1.5 million gift.
4. Late 2024. The lowest Phase 1 construction bid came in at $4.7 million, against a $5.2 million engineer's estimate. Current in Zionsville reported it would be paid for with grants, ARPA funds and impact fees.
5. May 21, 2026. The town held a private unveiling for stakeholders and donors. Public access followed in the weeks after, once rain-delayed finishing work was done.

The money came from several places. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources gave a $3 million grant through the Next Level Conservation Trust, which Current described as the largest single infusion of conservation funding in the state's history. The DNR added a $500,000 grant from its Land and Water Conservation Fund, and the Zionsville Parks Foundation raised more than $800,000 locally.

The Carpenters' role started well before the sale. Current's profile of the couple ran when they were named grand marshals of this fall's Fall Festival parade. It notes that both are biologists, have lived in Zionsville since 1987, and kept the old course's trails mowed while putting up bluebird boxes and encouraging pollinator meadows. In other words, the rewilding began on private land and moved to public land partway through.

"Nature was already starting to reclaim the once manicured golf course. Me and Nancy said that place has to be preserved."

Jim Carpenter said that at the May unveiling, as reported by Current.

What Phase 1 built for visitors

Phase 1 is the part made for people. It includes a pavilion with restrooms, a nature playground built with wood and water features, about two miles of trails, an outdoor classroom, an amphitheater, two scenic overlooks, a wildlife blind and a new entrance. FOX59 describes the trails as a mix of paved and natural surfaces, with the entrance at 601 S. County Road 900 E. At the unveiling, some guests walked the paved path with the Merlin Bird ID app open, letting it name the birds by their calls as they went farther into the old course.

The project's funding also paid for planting 1,500 new trees and restoring several acres of prairie and wetland. Those numbers are the reason a November visit matters. Several acres of restored habitat is a small share of 215. A newly planted tree is a sapling for years. Much of what you'll walk past this month is old fairway in the early stages of change.

Hours, dog rules and bike access are worth checking before you go. Zionsville's town park rules limit cycling to trails and areas designated for bikes, and they restrict entry to posted park hours. Read the signs at the entrance or check with Zionsville Parks & Recreation before bringing a bike or a dog.

Three November evenings and mornings with a naturalist

Zionsville Parks has three naturalist programs at the preserve this month. Each is a guided way to see the land at a time of day or year most people would skip.

The birding walk is the November stop in the parks department's Fall Birding Series, which visits a different park on one Saturday morning each month. Naturalist staff teach how to identify resident and migratory birds by sight and sound. All skill levels are welcome, and staff bring a few binoculars to lend. When the listing was captured, 20 seats were open. Seat counts change, so register through the Zionsville Parks MyRec site instead of planning to walk up.

There's a reason the preserve is a good host for this walk. Jim Carpenter has said the site will be home to hundreds of bird species. At the unveiling he told the crowd a visitor might see a bluebird or hear a meadowlark. That's a projection for the finished preserve, not a checklist for one Saturday in November. Even so, a naturalist walk across ground partway between fairway and prairie is one of the few ways to see which birds are already using it.

The two pavilion evenings are timed for early dark, so they show the preserve after most of its visitors have left.

The bigger work hasn't started yet

The preserve won statewide recognition before most of its plan was built. On Sept. 30, Accelerate Indiana Municipalities, an advocacy group for Indiana cities and towns, named it the 2026 Community Green Project of the Year. The group cited its "innovation and scope, thoughtful planning and incorporation of schoolchildren," according to Current. Mayor John Stehr said in a statement that the preserve "is vital to protecting part of the natural world in our town for generations of our families, friends, and neighbors to enjoy."

Here's what Phase 2 is planned to add, all of it still in planning:

• Eagle Creek restoration. The Indiana Stream and Wetland Mitigation Program plans to restore up to 10,000 linear feet along Eagle Creek and its tributaries on the property, including removing non-native species. The DNR will help care for the area for 10 years.
• More ways in. Boardwalks through the wetlands, more trails, more overlooks and a tree canopy.
• A named overlook. The Zionsville Parks Foundation gave $75,000 toward demolishing the old clubhouse and bunkhouse. In return it gets 50-year naming rights to an overlook on Eagle Creek.
• A nature education center. It would replace the former clubhouse and bunkhouse. A September 2026 town RFP addendum aims to start a feasibility study in January 2027. It sets no budget range for the study and expects a mix of town and foundation funding. The town has called roughly $5 million a realistic eventual construction cost, but that figure isn't a final budget.

Tim Casady, president of the Zionsville Parks Foundation, summed it up at the unveiling, as Current reported: "There is much more to do … phase two is on the drawing board." The foundation is still raising money for the next stages through zparksfoundation.org.

Why this winter is the starting point

Put those plans next to what's on the ground and the preserve's timing becomes clear. Phase 1 gave Zionsville paths, an overlook, a blind and a pavilion. The changes that will most alter the place are still ahead: thousands of feet of creek bank cleared of invasive plants, wetlands you'll cross on boardwalks, a building where the clubhouse stood. Stehr has said he'd like the preserve to host school field trips the way Conner Prairie does in Westfield. In June, Current reported that the parks department planned to expand its third-grade Nature Connections program to all Zionsville elementary schools this school year, with naturalists teaching ecology lessons in classrooms during the fall and winter.

So a walk this month shows the before picture. The saplings are still small, the prairie acres are still few, and parts of the old course still look like fairways. Anyone who does the Nov. 7 birding walk now and returns after the Eagle Creek work will be comparing the same ground at two different stages.

We'll be following Phase 2 at Carpenter Nature Preserve this winter, and we're always glad to talk about how projects like this are changing Zionsville. If you have questions about this side of town, or about the preserve's next chapter, the team at Morton Homes Realty is happy to help. Contact Us.