Merritt Family and Younger Family Preserve

Saturday, June 21

Union Pier, Mich.

Fourteen of us humans and one dog took the Merritt Family and Younger Family Preserves trail. It was a humid, hot day. We came with hats and water bottles, and we drank as we walked along a 1.3-mile loop that snaked alongside the busy I-94 highway. Before we took to walking and hydrating, Susan Ebler, a long-time steward and volunteer for Chikaming Open Lands (COL) and her husband David Ebler briefly explained the role of stewards: to walk trails periodically, alert staff to muddy areas, control invasive species, and, as they were doing, introduce others to the varied beauty of COL.

We also enjoyed learning about the history of the place. The Merritt Family first gifted 35 acres to COL. Then the Younger Family sold 25 acres to COL at a bargain price. The Merritt Family Trail, the Merritt Pond Trail, and the Younger Family Loop Trail form the 1.3-mile loop from these two properties.

It is quite amazing to see all manner of trees (large maples, sassafras, new growing ash, ironwood), to walk on the wide dirt trail with large patches of moss, to pass a forest floor full of mayapples, stand over ravines and depressions, note bird calls, while at the same time seeing the whiz of traffic and hearing the noise of I-94.

With the dog, huffing mightily beside us, we noted the slash from logging days where animals now have a protected habitat and the staging area for logs that has become a prairie with raspberries, blackberries, and various prairie plants. Pat, a repository of knowledge, pointed out the circular pin-like holes on an ironwood made by a foraging woodpecker different than the large round and rectangular holes I had learned about. He opened a gall and gave us a quick lesson on gall formation. Even before the sweating and water drinking, we also learned the important matter of safe parking, for some of the area along the road is muddy enough to stop a car in its tracks, and it is not advisable to drive as far as the dead end.