Rockwoods Reservation is a state forest and wildlife conservation area in St. Louis County, Missouri. It was established in 1938, making it one of the oldest Missouri Department of Conservation areas. Being located close to a major urban area and in a rapidly developing

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

an area increases its significance as a nature reserve. Rockwoods supports a diverse array of native plant and animal life and contains geologically interesting rock formations and ecologically important springs and caves. Rockwoods Reservation is not a pristine wilderness untouched by human hands, however; remnants of extensive former limestone, clay and gravel quarrying operations are hidden in the dense

second growth The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

forest. Most of the original forest was clearcut to feed lime kilns. Rockwoods Reservation adjoins St. Louis County's

Greensfelder County Park Greensfelder County Park consists of in western St. Louis County, Missouri. It is located in the city of Wildwood and bordered to the south by the Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for res ...

to the south, which itself abuts the state's

Rockwoods Range Conservation Area Rockwoods Range Conservation Area consists of in western St. Louis County, Missouri. It is just north of Interstate 44 west of Eureka. The land is part of the Henry Shaw Ozark Corridor. Most of the land was donated to the Missouri Department o ...

. Taken together, these three parcels constitute a contiguous green belt of almost . The Greenrock Trail is a hiking trail that crosses all three areas with one terminus in Rockwoods Reservation. There are six trails in Rockwoods Reservation: *Wildlife Habitat Discovery Trail *Rock Quarry Trail - *Trail Among the Trees - *Lime Kiln Trail - *Green Rock Trail - of the trail's *Turkey Ridge Trail - Image:Rockwood Reservation-terrain1.jpg, Rockwoods Reservation map File:Rockwoods Cave.jpg, Rockwoods Cave entrance File:Green Rock Trail.JPG, Green Rock Trail

References

{{Protected areas of Missouri Conservation Areas of Missouri Missouri state forests Nature reserves in Missouri Protected areas established in 1938 Protected areas of St. Louis County, Missouri Nature centers in Missouri 1938 establishments in Missouri