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University of Michigan - School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)

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Harper Preserve

Longitude/Latitude: 
42.7876, -83.8589
Address: 
Southwest corner of Genesee County, near the town of Argentine, 45 miles northwest of Ann Arbor Argentine Township MI 48451 US
Images: 
Site Overview: 
Harper Preserve is a 375-acre agricultural property in Argentine Township, 43 miles north of Ann Arbor. The property contains Murray Lake (a 40-acre lake), 80 acres of conventional cropland, oak-hickory forest, marshland, and old fields in transition to forest. The farm is currently under a private lease for farming in a cornsoy rotation by Wolverton Farms. This property is not open to the public but could potentially be used for teaching and research.
Management
Site History: 

The large lake on site, Murray Lake, is named after the first settler of this area, James H. Murray, who came from Rochester, New York to settle in Argentine in 1835, later building both the dam and saw mill in the village. The Hoyts donated the property to the University in 1974 as the William Albert Harper Preserve, in memory of Mrs. Hoyt's father, who was a surgeon and amateur naturalist. The site is to be used for teaching and research under the direction of SEAS. Almost half of the Hoyt property was cleared at one time for farmland. Currently part of the property is in conventional crop production under lease.

Site Ownership: 
School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)