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Home PageMissouri State Park Designated Natural Areas
Elk River Breaks Woodland Natural Area (Big Sugar Creek State Park, 1,613 acres) features the largest and best example of dry and dry mesic chert woodland in the Elk River Hills Subsection of the Ozark Highlands. The topography is steep, rugged and very scenic. The area is managed to restore its native biodiversity and natural character. It includes short-leaf pine, Missouri's only native pine tree.
Lincoln Hills Natural Area (Cuivre River State Park, 1,872 acres): As a landscape scale natural area, Lincoln Hills Natural Area features the range of natural communities and geologic features found in the Mississippi River Hills Subsection of the Central Dissected Till Plains. Geologic features include caves, springs, a losing stream and glacial erratics. Terrestrial natural communities include extensive areas of dry-mesic loess/glacial till woodlands, small limestone glades, savanna remnants, dry-mesic loess/glacial till prairie and a specialized wetland called a pond marsh.
Bee Trace Unit of the Chariton River Hills Natural Area (Long Branch State Park, 384 acres) The 25 acres of dry-mesic loess/glacial till savanna at the north end of Bee Trace represents the best loess/glacial till savanna remnant on public land in the Chariton River Hills Subsection of the Central Dissected Till Plains. As a result of the ecological restoration management program of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the savanna and woodland communities are illustrative of the mosaic of terrestrial communities that historically occurred in the Chariton River Hills of northern Missouri.
West Chariton Prairie Unit of the Chariton River Hills Natural Area (Long Branch State Park, 44 acres) West Chariton Prairie is a remnant native prairie that has been actively managed with prescribed burns since 1983. Native grasslands (even moderate sized) are important for the conservation of bird populations like Henslow's sparrow, dickcissel, bobolink and field sparrows. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is committed to an ongoing management program to restore and maintain the richness and diversity of West Charition Prairie
Meramec Mosaic Natural Area (Meramec State Park, 831 acres) features the largest chinquapin oak dominated woodland in the natural areas system as well as dolomite glades, an Ozark fen and a mosaic of rich woodlands. Twelve years of cedar removal, nine years of prescribed burns, and more than 16,000 hours of paid and volunteer labor resulted in an extraordinary landscape representative of the Meramec River Hills of the Ozark Highlands. Beaver Creek flows for 1.5 miles through the Meramec Mosaic before joining the Meramec River. The 22 species of native fish that have been documented is a state record for an order one stream. In addition, a 0.6-mile section of the Meramec River is home to rare aquatic species such as the Alabama shad, Ozark emerald dragonfly, Arkansas snaketail dragonfly and the spectaclecase mussel. The mature bottomland forest that borders this section of the river is breeding habitat for the rare cerulean warbler. However, the rarest animals documented from the Meramec Mosaic are some of its bats. Indiana bats and gray bats, both federally listed endangered species, seasonally inhabit two of the six caves.
Oumessourit Natural Area (Van Meter State Park, 300 acres)
"At places the Missouri River channel cut prairie with no intervening river bank timber. These prairie bottomlands included considerable tracts of marsh and standing water where coarse swamp grasses and sedges prevailed over large tracts."
Bragg & Tratschl, 1977
Oumessourit (oo meh soo ree) Natural Area, including 186 acres of freshwater marsh, fens and associated bottomland forests and 114 acres of mesic loess glacial/till forest, is the only Missouri natural area associated with a significant archaeological resource (the Messourit Village or Utz site). This presents a unique opportunity to interpret and manage the biodiversity of a significant wetland remnant and explore a link to a historic culture that depended on a vast and dynamic Big River landscape for survival.
In 1673, while traveling down the Mississippi River, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet learned of a tribe living up the river Pekittanoui (Missouri River) described as the "Oumessourit" (or People of the Big Canoe). The Messourit lived in villages on the loess hills in an area now referred to as the Pinnacles. They built large dug out canoes durable enough to navigate the wild river. At that time, all except the slopes of the loess hills were covered with tall grasses and a scattering of oak trees and copses. An extensive mosaic of bottomland prairie and wetlands extended from bluff to bluff through which a rowdy river coursed at will. This landscape provided habitat for bison, elk, deer, black bear, gray wolf, soft-shelled turtles, mollusks, many species of birds (trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, Canada geese, passenger pigeons, bald eagles) and a raft of grasses, sedges and flowering plants. Many were used for food, shelter, craft or ceremony. Cattail and reed mats served as primary materials for wigwams. Corn, beans, squash and pumpkins were cultivated on the rich terraces between the marshes and the uplands. Hunting provided meat, clothing, building materials and ceremonial objects, but the wild plants of the marsh provided sustenance when food was short. Wetland plants like water chinquapin (Nelumbo lutea), and arrowhead tubers (Sagitaria latifolia) were sacred and valuable foods.
In 1702, it is estimated that more than 1,000 families (including an equal number of domesticated dogs) lived in the Messourit village. However, The People of the Big Canoe were early and rapid victims of disrupting influences as Europeans moved westward. The Utz site was abandoned by 1728, and with numbers greatly reduced by warfare (with the Sacs and Fox) and smallpox, they left the region by 1800.
What's left today is an archaeological site, an interpretive center, a channelized river and a floodplain that has been converted to agricultural production. Van Meter State Park protects remnant freshwater marsh and upland forest communities. For 58 years, the wetlands were passively managed and allowed to succeed to cottonwood and elm. The expansion of the natural area is a direct result of 10 years of active management including the installation of water control structures, elimination of woody species and prescribed burns. When the Missouri River flooded in 1993, many woody species died due to the duration of floodwaters. River bulrush, water parsnip, giant burweed and other wetland plants and animals have replaced them. As a result of management a significant wetland resource has emerged that supports populations of tufted loosestrife, star duckweed and marsh pondsnail (all listed as species of conservation concern). They also provide habitat for numerous bird species. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources continues to manage the marsh and associated communities as living remnants of the biological and cultural heritage.
