Dowagiac Woods Nature Sanctuary, commonly referred to as Dowagiac Woods, is a woods located in
Cass County, Michigan
Cass County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 51,589. Its county seat is Cassopolis.
Cass County is included in the South Bend–Mishawaka, IN-MI, Metropolitan Statistical Area which has a t ...
. It is maintained and preserved by the
Michigan Nature Association
Michigan Nature Association is a nonprofit conservation organization established in 1952. It has 176 nature sanctuaries in 58 counties throughout Michigan under its jurisdiction.
History
In 1951, a bird study group in the Macomb County
Mac ...
, known as "MNA".
History
These woods were virtually unknown even to those living nearby until 1975, when an MNA member reported that
Blue-eyed Mary grew there. MNA made an appeal in 1981 for $110,000 to purchase the woods, and the campaign was completed in one year. More than 550 individual contributions were given, capped with a $20,000 grant from the
Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation is a philanthropic private foundation headquartered in Troy, Michigan, United States. The foundation works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and investing in arts and culture, education, enviro ...
.
In February 2009, MNA purchased adjacent acreage to expand Dowagiac Woods to . It is now MNA’s largest sanctuary in the Lower Peninsula.
Dowagiac Woods brochure
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101217212443/http://michigannature.org/home/sancts/dowagiac/Dowagiac%20Woods.pdf , date=2010-12-17 Michigan Nature Association
About the Sanctuary
Plants flourish at Dowagiac Woods in countless numbers. A top attraction in Dowagiac Woods is the abundance of blue-eyed Mary, ''Collinsia verna''. More than 150 beds can be seen from the trail, each averaging ten by twenty feet square. More than fifty species of other wildflowers bloom in the spring, and nearly fifty kinds of trees have been found at Dowagiac Woods.
Dowagiac Woods is also home to many animals, including at least 49 different kinds of birds like the yellow warbler
The yellow warbler (''Setophaga petechia'') is a New World warbler species. Yellow warblers are the most widespread species in the diverse genus ''Setophaga'', breeding in almost the whole of North America, the Caribbean, and down to northern S ...
and ruffed grouse.
Image:Dowagiac small.jpg, Trillium at Dowagiac Woods
References
External links
*http://www.michigannature.org.
Nature reserves in Michigan
Protected areas of Cass County, Michigan
Protected areas established in 1981
1981 establishments in Michigan