In the middle of the Harbert Preserve is a plain where few trees grow. In the summer the soil is chalky, cracked. In the winter, it is a fine slippery clay on whose paths water collects. The preserve has wetlands and an oak grove, too, but I think the clay plain is my favorite. Each of its tiny evergreens seems remarkable, and I imagine the beautiful porcelain that a visionary could conjure out of its ground.
Harley says
Sounds like a nice place to walk. To wander through an oak grove + wetlands and a dry clayish prairie must be cool!! Nice picture…
Celia says
It’s very nice. The parcel was privately owned before and became a nature preserve only lately. There is a healthy open-lands movement out in Berrien County, with many people deeding lands to the Chickaming Open Lands project or the nature conservancy. The result: a large number of unspoiled and relatively unfrequented places to walk. (I spend more time out in the woods than at the beach. . . .)