Warren Woods State Park
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Warren Woods is a 311 acre (1.26 km²) state park in Berrien County, Michigan, near the town of Three Oaks. It is leased by private owners to the state of Michigan.
The park is home to the last climax beech-maple forest in Michigan, which occupies 200 acres; the remaining area consists of floodplain oak-hickory forest. Because of the size and age of the trees, and the rarity of the ecosystem, the area has been designated since 1967 as a National Natural Landmark. Unfortunately, many of the beeches, with their temptingly smooth, thin, silver-grey bark, are heavily scarred by hand-carved graffiti, some of it decades old; however, this practice seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years.
The park has few facilities and is administered by nearby Warren Dunes State Park. Most visitors come to walk the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of hiking trails, which lead into the forest and follow the Galien River. Birders cite the park as a particularly good place to spot pileated woodpeckers. Other visitors come to picnic. In addition, the park is often the subject of ecological studies, since, in combination with the ecosystems preserved in nearby Warren Dunes State Park, it completes a progression of ecological seres.
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