The Springfield Conservation Nature Center in Springfield, Missouri has close to 3 total miles of trails throughout its scenic atmosphere. One of the things I love about the Nature Center is that it has sections of trail and entire fully-accessible trails so that everyone can enjoy the scenic nature of the Missouri Department of Conservation-funded conservation area located directly on the South edge of town, and showcases many native Ozark habitats directly within the park itself.
It is not uncommon to run into many wildlife species in the CNC as well. On our trip, we saw no fewer than 10 North American Whitetail deer, however, one of the limitations of my iphone photography is that damn zoom loses my focus, clarity, and I gain grain something fierce. I did capture a couple of them, but the quality was not good enough, in my opinion, to share. It is always neat to see deer running through the conservation area just a few yards away from you.
You can learn more about the trails that the Springfield Conservation Nature Center has to offer here.
Here is the official Missouri Department of Conservation link to the Springfield CNC for even more resources!
We found quite a few mushrooms on logs and dead tree stumps around the center more than anything, but we were a little surprised to find so few on the actual ground. It could have been the extreme leaf coverage, and the fact that the colors are finally changing in Missouri, so the yellow and orange leaves on the ground made spotting the fungi a little more challenging than last week's hike in Busiek.
I also managed to get a great snap of this ant climbing along the trunk of this tree. He kept moving for quite a bit before he slowed down long enough for me to grab this shot of him along the texture of this beautiful tree bark.
I must admit, the amount of clearning that has been done in the forest areas of the CNC is disappointing. Even in the time I have lived in this town, I have noticed more and more cuts happening. If they would go ahead and clear the debris, I have no doubt that this select cutting is good for the forest, however, they seem to leave the trees as stumps, or they cut the trees apart and seemingly leave them on the forest floor, which ultimately becomes a litter to the general ecosystem of the area.
The only thing I enjoy more than straight symmetry are twisted vines and contorted nature. I love nature's flexibility, and really enjoy seeing it in wild grape vines.
I highly recommend the Springield Conservation Nature Center to anyone visiting the area looking for a nice little walk around nature without having to leave the city, and it also is a great place to take the kids.
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