photo by: Mike Yoder

Members of the public tour the KU Field Station’s Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. The hike in the long-term research site went through oak-hickory forest and to a shale and sandstone escarpment above Coal Creek in the core of Baldwin Woods known as “The Cliff.”

Members of the public got a rare chance to see one of Douglas County’s most pristine woodland areas on Saturday when the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research offered tours of the Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve.

The preserve, which is between Baldwin City and Lawrence along County Route 1055, is a National Natural Landmark and is home to a variety of sensitive ecosystems. It is typically closed to the public to protect its environment, but groups of visitors got to hike through it on Saturday, led by ecologists from the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and the Kansas Forest Service.

photo by: Mike Yoder

Ryan Rastok, right, with the Kansas Forest Service, leads a group on a public tour of the KU Field Station’s Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. About 50 people, led by ecologists from the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and the Kansas Forest Service, hiked through the oak-hickory forest on Saturday.