Nature Preserve Offers Beauty and Recreation

Its trails have seen the last of winter visitors in boots, snow shoes and on cross country skis. With the arrival of warmer weather the West Bloomfield Woods Nature Preserve is ready to welcome spring. 

The flowers of spring

Entering the woods from Arrowhead Road around mid-April, the bright blue of scilla dazzles as the trail winds toward the marsh overlook at the foot of the first hill.  Listen for the croaking of the wood frogs — they are earliest to give voice. Eight different frog species were identified by naturalist Jonathan Schechter in his extensive 1990 flora and fauna survey of the 162-acre site.

As the scilla fade, white and yellow daffodil and narcissus will open up, followed by pink, blue and white Spanish bluebells.  Those flowers are part of the history of the woods, planted, not native. Past the marsh, look for yellow trout lilies with their brown-speckled leaves, and the hill covered  with trillium. 

Up the hill and farther through the hilly, mile-plus woods trail are patches of early-blooming, delicate pink spring beauties, and the occasional deep purple hepatica. Those are some among the many natives, here before the early European settlers arrived. In all there are some 70 species of flowers, native, “escaped domestic,” and “alien” (some call these weeds).

Who planted those daffodils? 

The woodland and a much larger area around it was once owned by the Ward family, probably intended for lumbering. Instead, the owners decided to sell lots for homes. They set aside an area -- “The Park” -- for the enjoyment of homeowners. They brought  bulbs from Holland to add beauty to The Park and created the bridle paths that the current trails now follow.  The bulbs, planted in the 1920s, have naturalized over time. 

Part of West Bloomfield escapes development

West Bloomfield was rapidly developing around it but a  part of The Park, which is now the Nature Preserve, remained an intact woodland until the late 1980s.  Bisected by a headwater stream of the Franklin River, a Rouge tributary and listed in a 1987 county-wide inventory of the most environmentally significant natural areas, the woodland was slated for development.  The trees were tagged  to indicate which would remain and which would be removed. 

A  large group of residents led by Concerned Citizens for West Bloomfield initiated a successful two-year effort to save the woods.  The Preserve was purchased in 1988 by West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation through a voter-approved land preservation millage, assisted by a $1.5-million grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.

The preserve has a role not considered in 1988

The preserve and its trails provide a place for recreation year round.  But with the recent focus on reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, individual trees and relatively small woodlands like the  preserve play an important role in carbon sequestration.

Considered primarily an oak/hickory forest, there are some 50 species of trees in the West Bloomfield Woods Nature Preserve, according to the 1990 inventory. There is a significant stand of mature black walnuts lining the entry path from Arrowhead.

How much carbon can a small woodland trap?

In a recent article in the Nature Conservancy online newsletter, a reader asked Bill Stanley, the conservation director in Ohio, whether “anyone can estimate the effect of keeping 170 acres of trees,” that the community had preserved. 

 The answer applies closely to the carbon benefit of the 162 acres of West Bloomfield Woods Nature Preserve. Stanley based his answer on a guess that the Ohio forest was about 55 years of age, probably similar to the Bloomfield Preserve, although many of the trees may well be older.

"At 55 years, 170 acres of well-stocked oak/hickory forest in your region contains about 41 thousand metric tons of carbon dioxide ... for context, on average, cars emit around five tons of carbon dioxide per year,” Stanley wrote.

That suggests the West Bloomfield Woods Nature Preserve might capture the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of more than 140 cars per year.

What happens if the trees are cut down?

“Another positive thing to remember,” Stanley wrote, “is that a forest left standing continues to grow, while an area converted to development doesn’t.” Even if the development which came close to taking over West Bloomfield Nature Preserve had saved some trees, the clearing of many would have diluted the forest’s role as a carbon “sink.”

When you visit the West Bloomfield Nature Preserve to enjoy the flowers of spring, look up at the canopy and imagine how the leafy branches are reducing the carbon dioxide  in the air along near-by Pontiac Trail.