Visit the nature center to walk the trails, attend a program or event, volunteer, and in the winter, you can rent snowshoes.  

View the interpretive exhibits (fun for kids and interesting for adults) inside the visitor center and outdoors as well.  Children can play on bridges, boulders, stepping stones, and logs in the outdoor natural play area. 

Demonstration Gardens include rainwater gardens, butterfly gardens and a small section of no-mow grass adjacent to the parking lot.  

Trees are an important part of our mission and have great value!  Enjoy a picnic under large old oak at the nature center, take a self-guided tour of the trees on the trail, or learn more about the city's tree rebate program, planting trees, and more.

The Nature Center is a resource, too!  The Nature Center is administs the city's costshare program to help Maplewood residents obtain rainbarrels, and also offering composting workshops with a costshare on composting bins.  

At the visitor center, use our nature library to identify a bird, or browse through the informational handouts to learn more about buckthorn removal and native landscaping.

The Nature Center is the home base for the Neighborhood Preserves.

Maplewood has 14 beautiful open space sites scattered all around Maplewood, find the one nearest you!

These nature preserves are great sanctuaries and getaways to hike, relax, and enjoy nature.

To enhance awareness and understanding of land, water and wildlife resources; to empower the community to become stewards of the environment. 

The Nature Center participates in Sustainability Projects for the City of Maplewood, including Sustainable Maplewood Project 2050, the Environmental Insert for the City's Newsletter and Maplewood's City Staff 'Green Team'.

Trail Hours at Nature Center and Preserves is 1/2 hour before Dawn to 1/2 hour after Dusk every day of the year.

 

Most visitors to the nature center are families and adults who come to hike the trails, watch birds and photograph wildlife. The nature center trails are being renovated this fall with visitor safety and enjoyment in mind.

The trail improvements will use sustainable trail design concepts. This includes strategies to reduce erosion and lessen negative environmental impacts. For example, the trail will be routed along the contour of a slope rather that straight downhill. Stretches of trail subject to spring flooding and erosion will be rerouted to drier land.

The nature center is fortunate to have many partners on this project. The contractor, Trail Source, will use a 4 ft. wide walk-behind grader to construct the trail. Then Minnesota Conservation Corps will do the fine grading work with hand tools. Community partners include St. Paul Audubon and Century College Field Biology students, who will be seeding and planting compacted soils to establish native vegetation. This project is supported by the City of Maplewood and by a Federal Park and Recreational Trails grant.