CERA reaches the community beyond Grinnell College to actively engage local public school children and learners of all ages in studying all facets of prairie life. Tours are provided each year for Grinnell alumni, visiting scholars, perspective students and faculty, K-12 students in local schools, conservation organizations, and the general public, and the lab facility is used to conduct field-based workshops open to the public.
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Trail Map
Trail signage is in place to guide you along trails through savanna, forest, and prairie habitats.
Full-Color CERA Trail Map
Black and White CERA Trail Map
CERA Trail Map Legend
Driving Directions
Take Interstate-80 west from Grinnell to Exit 173.
Go north on Hwy 224 and take the first gravel road on the right (S 12th Ave. E).
Follow it east about 1.5 miles to the main entrance of CERA.
Watch for our main entrance sign, shown at right.
Visitor Information
POLICIES: Please review our Policies before you visit.
Community Explorers:
Public programs will be listed on the CERA Calendar. We will also plan special events during Parents' Weekend and Alumni Weekend.
Educators:
CERA is definitely an exciting place to learn about science!
See highlights from elementary school visits to CERA.
We are very happy to provide tours of CERA for staff, faculty and students in tutorials and classes from all disciplines on campus. We ask that you contact Larissa Mottl to schedule a tour at least two weeks in advance to arrange for a guide. A typical walking tour to observe and discuss the habitats, restoration work, and experiments at CERA and lab facility will last 1-1.5 hours. For a tour focusing on a specific topic of interest to your class, please send your class syllabus and discuss your interests with the CERA Manager or CERA Director in advance.
Classes must provide their own transportation to CERA. Plan on a 20-minute drive from Grinnell to CERA taking Hwy 6.
Trail maps and CERA brochures will be distributed to the group at CERA or you may request that they be sent to you in advance of the trip. Alternatively, download a trail map.
Visit the Center for Prairie Studies website for outreach and special projects. If you are interested in visiting other natural areas near Grinnell, their 2004 (Third Edition) publication Guide to Prairie Sites Near Grinnell, Iowa is available (PDF).
Volunteer Information
There are many ways that you can contribute to CERA as a volunteer and learn more about natural history, natural resource management and restoration, and environmental education. Volunteer opportunities include seed collecting, seed cleaning, brush clearing, prescribed burning, photodocumentation, biological data entry, assisting with elementary school field trips, leading interpretative tours and wildflower walks, monitoring of field research projects, and other special projects.
View our Volunteer Opportunities Brochure (285KB) for more details, or contact the CERA Manager to receive email notifications of upcoming opportunities.
Prescribed Burns:
The majority of prescribed burns are conducted in the spring (late-March through early May) and fall (November-December). We have one set of small experimental prairie plots that receive a summer burn treatment in late August. We plan prescribed burns for experimental prairie plots each year in the spring and fall and each fall for our forest plots. Prescribed burns in other areas are determined year to year based primarily upon management and restoration needs. Fire is used to control invasive species, prevent establishment of woody species in grassland areas, alter the dominance of certain vegetation types, prepare an area for seeding, or to research the effects of fire on a myriad of physical and biological characteristics of prairie, savanna, and forest ecosystems.
We cannot schedule prescribed burns more than a few days in advance because they depend on weather conditions. Consequently, it is often difficult to find help beyond our core group of faculty and staff. We rely heavily on a pool of volunteers who we can contact via email or phone a day or two in advance of a burn. A final "it's a go" email or phone call is made to volunteers the day of or within a few hours of the start time for the burn.
More information on prescribed burns is in the following documents. If you are interested in helping, contact the CERA Manager.
2002 Burn Crew Volunteer Information (25 KB)
"Burn Training Presentation"
This presentation was split into two files to make the file sizes more managable.
(Prescribed Burn Orientation PART 1 updated Fall 2009; Prescribed Burn Orientation PART 2 from Fall 2009 2.0 MB each)
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