Pierce Cedar Creek Institute

Location & Contact:

701 W. Cloverdale Rd
Hastings, MI
269-721-4190
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Description:

~Promoting environmental education, research, preservation, and appreciation~

Set on 661 acres in Southwest Michigan, Pierce Cedar Creek Institute provides visitors with a unique exposure to a rare blend of diverse habitats including wetlands, forests, marshes, streams, lakes, and prairies.

The Institute is open to the public and welcomes a wide range of visitors including environmental professionals, researchers, K-12 educators and students, college/university students and faculty, and of course, the public. The mission of Pierce Cedar Creek Institute is to promote environmental education, research, preservation, and appreciation.

Whether you come to take a class, explore the trails, attend an event, or participate in research, your experience at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute will be a rewarding one.

Hiking trails are open daily from dawn to dusk. There is no fee to use the trails. Our Visitor Center is open Monday through Friday 9 am - 5 pm.

Trail maps are available outside the Visitor Center. Restroom facilities are available in the Visitor Center when the trails are open. Please enter from the west side (closest to the Education Building).

~About Pierce Cedar Creek Institute

Located nine miles south of Hastings, Pierce Cedar Creek Institute encompasses a diverse 661 acres. There are numerous opportunities for hiking, skiing, and snowshoeing, and observing wildlife on the seven plus miles throughout the natural areas. Facilities include an auditorium, classrooms, laboratories, and overnight facilities.

The previous owner of the majority of the property, naturalist Dr. H. Lewis Batts, protected the land from development or degradation, and most of it has remained untouched for the past 50 years. Pierce Cedar Creek Institute maintains the property as a preserve under an easement granted by Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy. Download a property/trail map (190k PDF file - may take 1 minute to download).

The Education Building includes two 24-person classrooms. The Visitor Center features a commons area, 225-person auditorium and a dining room for 100 people. Housing provides accommodation for 42 overnight guests. For more information, please view our Facility Rental/Group Visit page.

The gift shop, located in the Visitor Center, carries a variety of items, including handwoven baskets, fair trade item, birdfeeders and field guides. Children's items include nature books, craft kits, and Kidorable umbrellas and raincoats. If you are looking for a unique gift for that special person, stop by the gift shop.
The Land

Lake imageGeologically, the land has a number of glacial features. There are several kettle-hole wetlands, including a 13-acre lake, Brewster Lake. The landscape is a product of the last glaciers pushing forward and the erosion and deposition of material off of the glacier. The most impressive of this outwash on the property is a ravine which, at 150 feet deep, is one of the two deepest ravines in the county.

The Institute encompasses a wide variety of upland habitats: created prairie, fallow fields, young second growth forests, and mature forest such as beech-maple, oak and hickory. Since purchasing the property in 1998, the Institute has converted over 70 acres of field into native, tallgrass prairie.

Lake imageThe wetland habitats found on the property are quite diverse, including tamarack swamp forests, white cedar swamp forests (among the southernmost known in Michigan), mixed hardwood swamp forests, shallow and deep marsh wetlands, many acres of prairie fen, a spring-fed trout stream called Cedar Creek, and Brewster Lake itself.

Virtually the entire watershed of Brewster Lake lies within the preserve. The lake is one of the more pristine lakes in the region, notable for its lack of non-native aquatic plants and its completely-natural fauna of fish species.
Facilities

When planning Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, one of the chief goals was to protect the land by minimizing the impact the buildings have on it. The Institute founders asked architect, Jonathon Rambow of Slocum Associates in Kalamazoo, to design buildings to blend in with, rather than disrupt the landscape. Additionally the buildings are energy efficient and environmentally safe.

Lake imageBy building into the side of a hill, they were able to partially bury or "earth shelter" the Visitor Center, Education Building, and guest house against summer heat and winter cold, while at the same time ensuring that staff and guests would be treated to exquisite views of the landscape. Partially earth-covered roofs make the buildings appear as little more than grassy bumps on the hillside, while the low profile of the structures keeps them from dominating the view from the valley.

The heating and air conditioning is provided by a geothermal system. Whenever possible, building materials that were low in volatile organic compounds (the cause of sick building syndrome) were chosen. The building materials were almost exclusively natural, mostly concrete and wood. The use of any lumber from tropical or temperate old growth forest was not permitted. The facilities were designed to be friendly to people with disabilities and were made safe for those with chemical sensitivities and environmental illnesses. In June 2004, the Institute installed a 1,120 watt solar, or photovoltaic (PV) demonstration system. The system is installed in front of the education building and connected to its power grid. It consists of eight solar panels, each producing 140 watts of power while the sun is at its strongest.

Solar Panel imageIn addition to providing green power or clean energy, Pierce Cedar Creek Institute hopes it increases the public's awareness of renewable energy. The system was funded by grants from the Energy Office of the Michigan Department of Labor & Energy and the U. S. Department of Energy and the Barry Community Foundation. For more information about the system, visitors may pick up a brochure (156k PDF file) at the Institute. Informational signs are located next to the solar panels and the inverter, located in the Education Building.

The Institute's staff also continuously works to minimize the environmental impacts of day-to-day operations. Their work has lead to the development of an environmental policy for the Institute with specific goals for reducing energy usage and waste production. This ongoing process will lead to significant energy and cost savings for the Institute. Pierce Cedar Creek Institute has also been invited to be a part of the Green Venues pilot program through the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth. This program helps organizations determine and reduce their environmental impact.

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