Kalamazoo Nature Center — Attraction in Cooper Charter Township

Acknowledging that “the challenges of inequitable housing access in kalamazoo have broad and painful impacts across our entire community” and then stating that “the kalamazoo nature center is navigating this crisis” is egregious, the impact this has on the houseless community is inhumane, traumatizing and unconstitutional. The nature center is only navigating this crisis because of the fake image of prestige kalamazoo tries very hard to upkeep, an image where houseless people can not do life sustaining activities outside because it is bad for business. KNC’s is obviously not truly concerned about the wellbeing of people staying at the encampment. displacing the camp is not good for the well being of the community, like i said before it is traumatizing and inhumane. What I continue to read is excuses as to why people can not do life sustaining activities outside and citing different issues which do not seem like a major problem, that could have easily been mitigated by the different organization you mentioned, like temporary porta potties and trash bins while you continued “working closely with the city of Kalamazoo, ISK and housing recovery center and neighboring landowners to identify resources and support that honors the dignity of people using the space.” Why weren't people given more time to find resources? Why were so many organizations and people unsuccessful in helping approx 20 people in a dignified way, and KDPS was the ultimate answer, criminalization was the solution. Ultimately, KNC is more worried about maintaining the park for its stated use, i.e. the city’s image over human rights, KNC’s statement it is just an attempt to save face and making classist excuses for taking the easy route and asking KDPS to criminalize houseless people. The actions by KNC will not be forgotten. Lastly, Where can the community follow KNC’s commitment to” working with city, social service agencies and other parties to serve our community’s unhoused neighbors in the most compassionate...

This place is absolutely beautiful. The trails are a great mix. Some are wide and freshly mowed, while others are narrow footpaths weaving through the woods. It’s peaceful and has a lot of potential.

That said, I’m giving it 3 stars because the wayfinding is really inconsistent. It’s about 50 percent helpful and 50 percent completely confusing.

A few specific issues: Many of the directional trail posts have fallen over. People have tried to prop them up against trees, but they’re no longer secured in the ground. Several trail arrows are flat-out wrong. One example: we came to a three-way intersection shaped like a sideways “T” where you could go straight, left, or turn back. The arrow signs pointed up or to the right, which didn’t even exist. It made no sense. We ended up making several wrong turns even while using the map, which itself wasn’t very reliable. The trails are marked by color, names, and animals. This is a nice idea in theory, but in practice it’s confusing if not kept consistent which is not in some areas. We choose to remember the trails by color instead of name or animal. For example, we followed the orange trail, only to have all the markers randomly switch to blue halfway through, even though it was still the same trail. It threw us off until we figured that out.

Overall, it’s a beautiful spot and worth visiting, but they really need to fix the signage and mapping to make the...

Located in a fairly rural area, and there wasn't a lot of traffic on the road leading to it, nor the center itself. The welcome center is small and had a few reptiles and amphibians on display as well as a play area for children. There is also a small souvenir shop with local foods, t-shirts, and nature-themed gifts. The man who sold us our membership eas super friendly.

They have several miles of trails, and for our first visit, we did one of the shorter, "easy" trails called the Habitat Trail. It was fairly well maintained, and the kids enjoyed the overlook near the entrance because we were able to locate a turtle and two frogs in the water, as well as getting to listen to two frogs conversing.

It wasn't super crowded. We went on a Friday, early afternoon, and we only passed two other groups of people on the trail. It's peaceful, but HOT. Make sure you bring a hat, some sunglasses, and sunscreen, because not all areas of the trails are covered by trees.

Will definitely go back to try out some of the other trails over this summer and fall. We didn't make it to the arboretum/butterfly garden, but I was told it...