Deer Haven Preserve and the Amy Clark/Bader Bird Sanctuary

Deer Haven Preserve is now open from 8 a.m. to dark, 365 days a year.

The new 97-acre park, located at 4183 Liberty Road in Liberty Township, includes a one-mile walking trail that winds through a woodland and creek corridor along deep ravines. The trail crosses a newly developed wetland and extends to a bird blind overlooking a pond. The park also includes a picnic area and restroom facilities.

Later this year, the park district will use “green” construction methods to begin building a 3,500-square-foot nature center, to include a library with resource books, a display of bird and animal specimens, and a classroom/meeting room for use by community groups. Binoculars and spotting scopes will be available to aid visitors in viewing birds. Preservation Parks plans to open the nature center in 2009.

Future plans for the park include expanding the trails and adding reservable picnic shelters, an amphitheater and a festival field.

The land for Deer Haven Preserve was a generous gift from Phyllis A. Havener, donated in 2006. A monetary gift from John W. Bader Jr., in memory of his wife, Amy Clark/Bader, is helping pay for the bird sanctuary and nature center.

Deer Haven is the eighth park to be built by Preservation Parks since passage of the park district’s first tax levy in 1999. The district is asking tax payers to approve a levy renewal in November to allow the park district to acquire land for more parks, enlarge existing parks and protect additional natural areas, expand facilities at all parks including trails and reservable areas, continue to protect watersheds and expand environmental education programs.