Sora Meadows
Better birding coming soon!We are pleased to announce that Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy has been awarded a grant from Entergy-Palisades’ Environmental Initiatives Fund to create public access amenities at Sora Meadows Preserve in Paw Paw Township.
This generous grant from Entergy-Palisades will allow us to construct a 10-car gravel parking lot, a birders’ viewing platform, boardwalk, and a trailhead. These public access amenities will enable us to better share this spectacular nature preserve with the community and the general public.
We are pleased to announce that Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC) has been awarded a grant from Entergy-Palisades’ Environmental Initiatives Fund to create public access amenities at our Sora Meadows Preserve in Paw Paw Township.
In the past twenty years, SWMLC has conserved over 3 ½ square miles of wetlands, forested floodplains, and woodlands in the Paw Paw River Watershed while focusing on protection of the Great Lakes’ waters and wildlife habitat. The 65-acre Sora Meadows Preserve, acquired through donation from landowner Phyllis Webb, is a critical component in protecting water quality in the watershed.
Acquired in 2008 as part of a larger EPA – Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) nonpoint-source pollution project, SWMLC worked with Ducks Unlimited to build several impoundments on the site for water storage and create critical waterfowl habitat. Today, the preserve supports a broad diversity of birds, including 65 nesting species and over 100 migrating species.
SWMLC staff will be working with SWMLC board member and Western Michigan University professor Dr. Sharon Gill, volunteers, and members of the Audubon Society of Kalamazoo to coordinate the viewing platform design to optimize the birdwatching experience at Sora Meadows Preserve.
Our ongoing restoration work on this preserve, including removal of invasive species and reforestation efforts, has served to create additional habitat for popular but elusive bird species such as Eastern bluebirds and indigo buntings. We are really excited for birdwatching groups, schoolchildren, and others to be able to visit this preserve and have a place from which they can comfortably experience the tremendous variety of bird species present at this special preserve.