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Veits Woods
Learning doesn’t stop at the classroom door
At CMU, you’ll find opportunities to turn what you learn into what you can do.
At Veit’s Woods, you can step outside, get your hands dirty, observe ecosystems up close and gain experience in the field.
Because sometimes the best way to understand the natural world is to step into it.
Take your learning outside
What if your classroom could be a forest, a wetland or the banks of the Chippewa River?
At Central Michigan University, it can be.
Just minutes from campus, you’ll find Veit’s Woods, a 46-acre natural area where you can take what you learn in class and experience it firsthand. As you explore mature forests, wetlands, floodplains, old fields and river habitats, you’ll have opportunities to observe the natural world, collect data and gain experience doing the kind of hands-on work you can’t get from a textbook alone.
Your classroom is all around you
When you study biology, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, or Recreation, Parks, Leisure at CMU, you’ll have opportunities to get out into the field and put your knowledge to work.
At Veit’s Woods, you might:
- Study plants and animal communities
- Examine forest structure and ecosystem interactions
- Investigate soils and environmental conditions
- Observe ecological succession
- Collect and analyze field data
- Practice real-world field research methods
You won’t just learn what an ecosystem is. You’ll be standing in one, looking closely at how all of its pieces work together.
See science happening around you
Walk through Veit’s Woods and you’re also walking through thousands of years of environmental change.
Glaciers and the changing course of the Chippewa River helped shape the land beneath your feet. Later, portions of the property were cleared and farmed. Today, some of those former fields are gradually returning to natural communities through ecological succession.
As you explore the property, you can see that process happening alongside mature beech-maple-hemlock forest and river habitats.
That gives you the chance to experience ecological change as it happens, not simply read about it in a textbook.
Get field experience close to campus
One of the best parts? You don’t have to travel hours to get there.
Veit’s Woods is just minutes from CMU’s main campus, making it easy to incorporate field experiences into your coursework. You can go from the classroom to the field and back again without leaving the Mount Pleasant community.
That means more opportunities to practice the skills you’ll use as you continue your education and prepare for a career.
Find your place outside
When you’re not studying, Veit’s Woods gives you a chance to get outside and explore.
Unpaved trails wind through the property, with connections to nearby Chipp-A-Waters Park and the Chippewa River. You can experience the same natural area that serves as a living laboratory for CMU students and faculty.
Veit’s Woods is also open to the public, making it part of the larger Mount Pleasant community you’ll call home during your time at CMU.
