Oakland Township's fall wildflower seed harvest ends up at Watershed Ridge Park on Thursday, November 19. The volunteers who spent September and October collecting it in the parks will clean, label and mix it there. That happens the day after the year's last Wednesday bird walk.
The township's natural areas stewardship program puts some of its most hands-on work into the weeks the parks look most dormant. The bird walks pause after November 18 and come back January 6, 2027. In between, the schedule fills with seed work, shrub cutting at Bear Creek Nature Park and a run of small programs at Lost Lake. Most of it is free or close to it.
The Fall Harvest Comes Together on November 19
This year's seed came in over eight collecting afternoons, from September 17 through October 30, each starting from the Paint Creek Cider Mill at 4480 Orion Road. The township's volunteer workday page explains the rush. Many native plant seeds can only be collected "for a few weeks in the fall." The seed restores ground where invasive plants have been removed.
The November session is where that harvest becomes something usable. The same workday page describes it this way:
"We'll clean seed that we collected through the fall and sort them into custom seed mixes for habitat restoration in the parks."
It runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The listing gives 1720 West Buell Road, and the potluck lunch in the middle is literal: bring a dish to pass.
A good harvest can be large. In 2024, volunteers collected 171 pounds of native seed from 159 species, which the Natural Areas Notebook called double or triple the program's usual take. That same profile covers George Hartsig, a volunteer since 2021. He has personally collected at least 84 pounds of local wildflower seed in recent years and worked out cleaning methods using salt bags, leaf vacuums and a household vacuum.
Cleaning is only half of the job. A March 2025 Notebook post explains that volunteers label each batch by species, date and location, then sort the seed into mixes built for wetland, upland or woodland ground. Lisa Muenzenberger, a volunteer since October 2022, helps track that seed data. Her Conservation Steward Program capstone helped start a project to grow hard-to-collect native seed in home gardens.
Where the Mixes End Up: Twenty Acres at Watershed Ridge
The mixes go to real ground, and one of the biggest recent projects is at the park hosting the seed day. Watershed Ridge Park covers 170 acres of mature woods, vernal pools, open fields, streams and wetlands, with 1.4 miles of trails.
For years, farmers rented its fields from the Parks and Recreation Commission for row crops. A December 2025 Notebook post explains why the crew took the hedgerows out. With hedgerows in place, two 5-acre fields and a 10-acre field worked as separate habitats, often too small even for field sparrows and vesper sparrows looking for nesting space. Grassland birds avoid shrubby edges where foxes, raccoons and hawks can hide. With the hedgerows removed, the crew hopes those birds will treat a single 20-acre grassland as safe enough to nest in.
Stewardship Manager Ben VanderWeide and Stewardship Specialist Grant Vanderlaan did the clearing over two seasons with help from Six Rivers Land Conservancy. They took out a north-south hedgerow one year and the long east-west hedgerow the next, and the felled tree roots were saved to give structure to new wet areas in the fields.
The program has seeded on this scale before. In late 2023, about 25 acres of invasive shrubs in the western section of Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park were mowed and seeded with native grasses and wildflowers. A shallow-water mix has also gone into the Paint Creek Heritage Area–Wet Prairie, with seed spread along the old Paint Creek channel in the woods to its north. Much of that sowing happens in winter, which explains the title of the "Sowing Seed on the Snow? Yes!" post.
December Is for Bear Creek's Buckthorn
Seed only takes hold where the invasives are gone, and that work moves to Bear Creek Nature Park at 740 West Snell Road in December. The park covers 107 acres of rolling hills, hardwood forest, Bear Creek Marsh, vernal pools and open fields. Its boardwalks, mowed paths and ADA-accessible limestone trails make it one of the township's easiest parks to get around.
The targets are glossy buckthorn and autumn olive. The 2026 workday listing says crews will keep working around the vernal pools, the northern marsh and other corners of the park. The 2025 notice reported that volunteers had finished the northern marsh perimeter and would work south into the rest of the park. The township has done this work with Six Rivers Land Conservancy for years, and a photo caption on the workday page shows Six Rivers and Stellantis volunteers clearing shrubs here in October 2021.
December is the right month for it. The township's stewardship blog gives the reasons: bare branches make the shrubs easy to spot, there is less heat and fewer insects, and frozen wetland ground is easier to reach.
The three workdays are Tuesdays, December 1, 8 and 15, from 9 a.m. to noon, meeting in the Snell Road parking lot. They are free, and the crew provides tools, training, light snacks and water. Bring or wear:
- Solid boots and long pants
- A long-sleeved shirt and gloves if you have them
- Your own water and a snack
- A guardian-signed waiver for any minor; children under 14 need a guardian with them
Drop-ins are welcome, but anyone who RSVPs through the workday page gets notice of last-minute changes or cancellations. That matters for an outdoor morning in December.
Snell Road's Second Trailhead
Snell Road is also the site of a new trailhead for Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park, where construction began in early summer. The Parks & Recreation Fall 2026 newsletter listed the access improvements:
- A new parking lot and trailhead off Snell Road
- A universally accessible crushed-limestone trail through oak forest to a stream overlook above the West Branch of Stony Creek
- A trail connection south into Stony Creek Metropark
The Alan Group is the contractor. Funding comes from a federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grant and the township's Land Preservation millage. The newsletter said the township would announce the park's reopening once the work was finished.
The park is 268 acres of stream valley, oak forest and restored wetland. In the director's words, it has been visited "mostly by wildlife and the few hikers willing to find their way through our mowed trails." Through September and October, the fourth-Wednesday bird walks met at Cranberry Lake Park while the new trailhead was built.
For the Metropark connection, Huron-Clinton Metroparks requires a pass for vehicles. Walkers and cyclists can enter free on park roads and hike-bike trails.
Indoor Hours at Lost Lake and the Cider Mill
Not every December program means kneeling in a marsh. Two Parks & Recreation nature programs at Lost Lake Nature Center cost $5 for residents and $7 for nonresidents:
- Pining Over Yew, Saturday, December 5, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., ages 50 and up. Participants make an evergreen centerpiece, learn which conifer you don't want as a Christmas tree, try pine needle tea and take a short tree-identification walk around Lost Lake Nature Park.
- Michigan's Winter Animals, Saturday, December 12, 10 a.m. to noon, all ages. A naturalist from Seven Ponds Nature Center gives an indoor presentation with real taxidermy, followed by a short hike to look for tracks and signs if the weather allows.
Registration is online at Oaklandtownship.recdesk.com or by phone at (248) 651-7810. The Parks & Recreation office is on the second floor of the Paint Creek Cider Mill.
The stewardship season ends with the Holiday Coffee Hour on Wednesday, December 16, 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Cider Mill. It's an informal morning where birders, nest box monitors, native-plant gardeners and workday regulars swap stories as 2026 wraps up.
From the Last Bird Walk to the First
| Date | What | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed., Nov. 18 | Last bird walk of 2026 | Fox Nature Preserve, 1401 Lake George Rd. | 8:30 a.m. |
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Seed cleaning and mixing, potluck | Watershed Ridge Park, 1720 W. Buell Rd. | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Tue., Dec. 1 | Invasive shrub workday | Bear Creek Nature Park, 740 W. Snell Rd. | 9 a.m. to noon |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Pining Over Yew, ages 50+ | Lost Lake Nature Center | 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. |
| Tue., Dec. 8 | Invasive shrub workday | Bear Creek Nature Park | 9 a.m. to noon |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Michigan's Winter Animals | Lost Lake Nature Center | 10 a.m. to noon |
| Tue., Dec. 15 | Invasive shrub workday | Bear Creek Nature Park | 9 a.m. to noon |
| Wed., Dec. 16 | Stewardship Holiday Coffee Hour | Paint Creek Cider Mill, 4480 Orion Rd. | 10 to 11:30 a.m. |
| Wed., Jan. 6, 2027 | Bird walks resume | See the bird walk schedule | 8:30 a.m. |
The Fox Nature Preserve walk meets in the lot at 1401 Lake George Road, just north of the green barn. Extra binoculars are available, and the walks run about 90 minutes to two hours.
Much of Oakland Township's appeal comes from the preserved land around its homes: Bear Creek's marsh, Watershed Ridge's new grassland and the ravine along Stony Creek. Kyle Matta works with owners of acreage and wooded parcels throughout the township and knows how nearby preserves and trail connections fit into a property's story. If your land borders one of these parks, request a complimentary home valuation and we'll show you how that setting shapes what your property is worth today.
