Events

Join us for a guided walk through the preserve with 

Mike Losey - Springfield Township Natural Resources Manager. 

As the seasons change, the Davis Lake Overlook is an excellent place to view fall colors and the last of the wildflowers on the moderate intensity trail network. Expect to see fringed gentians and fall asters as well as a host of migrating bird species.

Springfield Township’s complex, intact ecosystems, comprised of uplands and lowlands, hardwood forests and flowering wetlands, vernal pools and river corridors, provide habitat for rare plants and animal species that have disappeared from other parts of Michigan and most of the United States. At least one rare species and its local habitat are being studied by wildlife scientists as part of a major research project.

Springfield Township is steward to one of Michigan's largest, most pristine prairie fens: a globally rare wetland system known for its spectacular array of native wildflowers and rare wildlife. Springfield Township’s Shiawassee Basin Preserve is also one of the last places on earth to sustain a critically endangered butterfly known as the Poweshiek skipperling. The Poweshiek skipperling is a small (<1.25” wingspan) butterfly that depends on high quality prairie habitats like our fen for its survival. Until recently, the Poweshiek was one of the most common prairie butterflies in North America, being found in many states and provinces from the Great Plains region to the Midwest, but around 2005 the population began a mysterious decline in abundance. Today, there are less than five hundred individuals occurring in only a handful of locations across their former range.