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