Talking tour of Woodrill SNA (1 to 1/12 hr) and Wolsfeld SNA with Dr Lee Frelich, Director University of Minnesota Center for Forest Ecology and Institute on the Environment Fellow. Meet at 12 Noon at Woodrill. Co-sponsored by "Friends of Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas" and “West Metro Chapter of Master Naturalists”

In the Winter 2015 issue of SNA Nature Notes, retired SNA Program Supervisor Bob Djupstrom tells the story of the gifting of this site to the state by Bruce and Ruth Dayton. After acquiring the land bit by bit over decades, the Dayton's secured the last remaining inholdings and removed any structures on the land. Later, they helped support reforestation of the resulting clearings, as well as exclosures used to study effects of deer and earthworms on ground-layer species.

As Djupstrom relates, the name given to this natural area by the Daytons—Wood-Rill—originates in a line of poetry by Wordsworth, a rill being a brook or small stream: "His daily teachers had been woods and rills/ The silence that is in the starry sky/The sleep that is among the lonely hills."

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Directions: From downtown Long Lake 1.25 miles east on Wayzata Blvd, then continue 0.25 mile east on Old Long Lake Rd. Park in lot on south. Hike east along road to trails.