In 2021, the Stewards of Kleinstuck successfully purchased and preserved 12 acres of undeveloped woodland next to the Kleinstuck Preserve. We call the new preserve “Little Sister,” and she is open to the public for passive recreation from dawn to dusk. Consider donating today to support our efforts to Keep Kalamazoo Wild™!
To learn more, visit KeepKalamazooWild.com.
Events & Work Days
The Stewards of Kleinstuck (SoK) is a group of neighbors and land management experts formed in the fall of 2007 around our love for the 48-acre Kleinstuck Preserve. We’ve noticed over the years that the landscape has changed greatly with many of our beautiful Michigan native plants being driven out by invasive species. The pond has been largely filled in by erosion and invasive plants and without active land management the preserve with continue to decline.
One of the major problems with these invasive species is that they don’t have natural predators in this area so they dominate and drive out the natives creating areas with only one or two varieties of plants. These areas of limited diversity are very unstable and vulnerable. Our goal is to gradually remove invasive species and plant native wildflowers, shrubs, trees and grasses to restore balance. These efforts will benefit the land, wildlife habitat, and also the ground water quality, much of which drains down through Kleinstuck.
Some accomplishments over our last 12 years:
- 247 volunteer workdays in the preserve
- 17,000+ volunteer hours
- 50 special events (frog walks, birdwatching walks, snowshoe hikes, wildflower identification walks, movie nights, etc.)
- 19,514 native plants planted (wildflowers, grasses, trees, shrubs)