Nature has our backs. Let’s return the favor.
Our public preserves remain free and open from dawn to dusk – and your support helps keep them that way!
Eastman Creek Preserve
Geneva Township • Van Buren County • 138 acres
138 acres
Geneva Township
Van Buren County
Refuge Preserve
No trails or parking.
Due to its sensitive habitats, difficult entry, and lack of infrastructure, Eastman Creek Preserve is not open to the public without permission from SWMLC staff.
Information
In early 2015, SWMLC received a 138-acre property as a gift from the estate of Helen Labs Rands, land that had been in her family for over 150 years. This property is a mix of old farm fields, riparian forest, deep hemlock ravines, and pocket wetlands. The old fallow farm fields drop down into dramatic ravines lined with hemlock, beech, and sugar maples. Eastman Creek and its small tributaries wind back and forth through the ravines under a dense tree canopy, a quiet sanctuary for owls, fish, and other wildlife. Wildflowers carpet the banks of the ravines in spring. A pond at the corner of the preserve provides homes for many frogs and turtles and provides a popular gathering spot for large flocks of wood ducks during migration.
Eastman Creek Preserve is located next to a 59-acre farmland parcel that, in keeping with Helen’s wishes, is also protected by SWMLC through a conservation easement. We’re very grateful to Helen Labs Rands for her conservation foresight, and for the legacy gifts that she left behind for SWMLC to nurture.
Nature has our backs.
Let’s return the favor.
Our public preserves remain free and open from dawn to dusk – and your support helps keep them that way!
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