Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey: January 31

Saturday, January 31

9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve

2660 Fawn Lake Dr NE, East Bethel, MN 55005 

The Winter 2026 Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey is coming up on Saturday, January 31. We hope you can join us.

The Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey is a joint venture between the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project and the University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. We help to gather information about species of interest to wildlife researchers working at Cedar Creek. Our focus this year is on coyotes and weasels. The survey is a unique opportunity to improve your tracking skills, connect with nature, and help Cedar Creek scientists. You can read about our Winter 2022 survey here. and our Spring 2024 survey here.

The program is free, but registration is required

Register here

Our Winter Survey will be an all day affair. We will head out in teams to survey snow-packed roads and trails for animal tracks, then come back in to share our discoveries with one another. Each team will be led by an experienced wildlife tracker who holds a Level III or higher in Track & Sign identification. In past surveys, our teams have identified and follow the tracks of otter, fisher, mink, and small weasels. You can see some of those observations here. If there is good snow cover, we will focus our attention on these mustelids. If there is modest snow cover, we will focus our attention on canid trails--particularly coyote.  With the snow covering the ground, and the bison enclosure vacant for the season, we have a broader range of places we can roam, and the opportunity to follow trails for longer distances. Who knows what we will find. Here is the schedule for the day:

8:30am    Doors open at Lindeman Center

9:00am    Program begins: Tracking teams organize to leave for the field

~3:00pm  Return from the field for sharing, mapping and debriefing

4:30pm    Complete

We look forward to getting out in the field with you.

Registration is required by each individual participant.

Registration will be capped once we reach our maximum capacity.

Click here to register for the Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey.

Please Contact Us with any questions.

About Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve is a 5,400 acre experimental ecological reserve operated by the University of Minnesota. It is located about 35 miles north of Minneapolis and St. Paul, just east of Bethel.

Cedar Creek lies at the boundary between prairie and forest. It is a mosaic of uplands dominated by oak savanna, prairie, hardwood forest, pine forests, and abandoned agricultural fields and of lowlands comprised of ash and cedar swamps, acid bogs, marshes, and sedge meadows. The area was first set aside in the early 1940s to be kept in its natural condition for scientific and educational purposes. Much of the land remains pristine, and has never been developed for agriculture. You can learn more at cbs.umn.edu/cedarcreek

The diverse, pristine habitat supports a wide variety of mammals. Species seen on the property over the Reserve's 75 year history include white-tailed jackrabbits, badger, fisher, fox squirrels, porcupine & spotted skunks. Reserve staff and scientists are looking for our help to update their index of mammals. If you are a beginner, the surveys will offer an overview of the diversity of Minnesota Mammals. For the advanced tracker, you might get to try your hand at distinguishing fisher from otter; fox squirrel from grey squirrel; and a variety of tiny mammal tracks. You can take a look at some of what our tracking teams have found on our iNaturalist Project Page, or look read about our past surveys on our blog.

Public access to the Reserve is limited. The Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey program offers you the rare opportunity to explore this exceptional landscape.