Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve: an epic journey

We at Beargrass Thunder have recently become more interested in the Louisville Nature Center. Wanting to learn more, we reached out to Rosemary Bauman, the head of the Forest Stewards, who offered to give us a tour of the Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve. We met with her on Tuesday, June 25th 2019 excited to explore. What we thought was going to be a fairly tame 30-minute tour of a trail or two turned into a four and a half hour long trek through the wilderness that exists within the middle of urban Louisville!

Rosemary is a wonderful person and a delight to be around. Her blog, One Forest Fragment is a huge inspiration to us at Beargrass Thunder. She happily agreed to a spontaneous interview in the middle of our journey which can be viewed below. She explains the Forest Stewards and her contributions to the preserve, her hopes for the future, and how you personally can help out.

On our hike, we saw a plethora of native wildlife including deer, butterflies, dragonflies, snails, and even a heron! Rosemary pointed out many trees and plants and gave fun and interesting trivia along the way. We really got a good idea of what the forest once looked like and how it has evolved thanks to the effort of the Louisville Nature Center, the Forest Stewards, and the local community.

Luckily, I came prepared. I went through 3 camera batteries as well as completely filled two memory cards full of HD footage! It was a tough time editing 4 hours of raw footage down to a 45-minute video, but I pulled through! The video ended up being a great installment to our Kentucky Nature Walks series.

Some interesting highlights of our hike include a mid-1800s archeological site containing the remnants of what was supposed to be Roundhill School for Boys, as well as sections of the historical Prather Road constructed on a berm throughout the nature preserve which was likely built through the use of slave labor. Both sites contain brick, glass, and other ancient building materials - super interesting!

Needless to say, we were exhausted after full day of exploring every aspect of this complex ecosystem right in the heart of urban Louisville in the middle of Jefferson County. We had no idea these trails through the forest were so vast and well-maintained and we highly recommend you go check them out for yourself!

Learn more about how you can help out the Forest Stewards and the Beargrass Creek State Nature Preserve at the Louisville Nature Center website, and don't forget to check out Rosemary's wonderful blog! Lastly, keep up to date with Beargrass Thunder at our Facebook page, and help us out by subscribing to our YouTube channel.