Warren Woods State Park is a nature preserve and public recreation area in Berrien County,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, near the town of Three Oaks. The

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

is leased by private owners to the state of Michigan.

History

The woods are named for

Edward Kirk Warren Edward Kirk Warren (April 7, 1847 – January 16, 1919) was an American industrialist and inventor who developed bone (corsetry), featherbone, a popular alternative to whalebone in corsetry. He is the namesake of Warren Dunes State Park and Warren ...

(1847-1919), the inventor of the featherbone corset (which replaced the whalebone corset with turkey bones and secured his fortune). Starting in 1879, Warren bought of the woods and of the dunes, setting them aside for preservation.

Natural features

The park is home to the last

climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...

beech-maple forest in Michigan, which occupies . The virgin North American beech (''Fagus grandifolia'') and

sugar maple ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prima ...

(''Acer saccharum'') forest has specimens tall and with girths greater than in diameter. The remaining area in the park consists of floodplain oak-hickory forest. Because of the size and age of the trees, and the rarity of the ecosystem, the area has been designated since 1967 as a

National Natural Landmark The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best ...

. Many of the beeches, with their smooth, thin, silver-grey bark, are heavily scarred by hand-carved graffiti, some of it decades old; however, the practice seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years.

Activities and amenities

The park has few facilities and is administered by nearby

Warren Dunes State Park Warren Dunes State Park is a Michigan state park, located along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in Berrien County. The park's large sand dunes and lakeshore beaches make it one of the most popular of Michigan’s state parks with an average ...

. Most visitors come to walk the of

hiking trails A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. The ...

, which run from the northern boundary on Warren Woods Road to a parking area accessed from the southern boundary on Elm Valley Road. In the middle of the park the trail crosses the

Galien River The Galien River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 19, 2011 stream in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. The river begins at the outlet of Dayton ...

on a pedestrian bridge, where there is an interpretive station. The park contains the Warren Woods Ecological Field Station owned and operated by the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

Birder Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

s cite the park as a particularly good place to spot

pileated woodpecker The pileated woodpecker (''Dryocopus pileatus'') is a large, mostly black woodpecker native to North America. An insectivore, it inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the ...

s. Other visitors come to picnic. The park is the subject of

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

studies because, in combination with the ecosystems preserved in nearby

, it completes a progression of ecological

seres Seres are the people of Serica, one of the easternmost countries of Asia known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Seres may also refer to: People * * * Brands and enterprises * See also * Celes (disambiguation) Celes may refer to: * ...

References

External links

Warren Woods State Park
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Warren Woods State Park Map
Michigan Department of Natural Resources {{authority control State parks of Michigan Protected areas of Berrien County, Michigan National Natural Landmarks in Michigan Protected areas established in 1930 1930 establishments in Michigan IUCN Category III Old-growth forests