MLive says: “You'll find farmland, forest, gardens and prairie when visiting DeVries Nature Conservancy. You can walk your dog or launch your canoe into the Shiawassee River. Check out the chicken coop and the wildflowers. Kids will love the nature playscape. A highlight of the grounds is the pollinator garden where you can view fluttering butterflies. If you fall in love with this place, you can even get married here.”
May 7, 2021
After departing Lansing, I headed northeast to Shiawassee County and DeVries Nature Conservancy. Some rainclouds had rolled in, and by the time I arrived it was raining quite hard. I pulled into the parking lot just outside of Owosso (a rather cute and artsy small town), and waited it out with some snacks in the car. When the rain slowed, I headed outside, umbrella and camera in hand.
The Nature Conservancy offers a variety of ecosystem types to explore (see map above) including prairie, wetalnds/floodplain, and forest (in addition to quite a bit of cropland). This early in the season, the pollinator and community gardens weren’t quite taking off yet, so I opted to head into the woods and locate the floodplain trail. Although it’s a short loop, it provided excellent bird-watching, a view of the river, and a decent amount of educational signage for visitors.
After completing the small floodplain loop, I wandered around the forest and took note of the wildflowers and plant diversity on the property - I was delighted with trillium, trout lily, ramps, and more.
With the rain seemingly subsiding, I walked back to the car to deposit my umbrella and explore the trails that went through the rest of the property (toward the prairie). I was pretty underwhelmed, as these trails were just perimeters of mowed grass around the cropland and prairie, bordering on private residential properties and the road. I had intended to walk all of them, but wasn’t feeling inspired to after realizing this: I cut back through the property to the car and ended my visit there. Overall, it’s a beautiful (albeit, small) Nature Conservancy, and they seem to have wonderful educational and community-focused programming. If you’re near Owosso, it’s worth a brief stop.
Speaking of Owosso, I meandered back toward town to locate a bathroom and fill up my gas tank. I took a little detour to Owosso’s historic castle: The Curwood Castle. It’s a small castle on the riverfront with its own small park and suspension bridge. I stopped to snap some photos before the rain started up again, much heavier than expected. I ran for the car and set off for my final stop of the day.