Woodland Trail may be part of Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge but it is literally on the edge of a city and Saginaw is lucky because of that. If there was ever a perfect escape from its urban grasp, this is it; a point of land where two great rivers converge to form a moat against the advances of what some people would call progress and others decay. On the north, there's the Tittabawassee, and on the south side the Shiawassee. In between the two is an area of woods, marshes, creeks, and 5 miles of trails open to hikers, mountain bikers, and cross-country skiers.

Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1953 and contains more than 9,800 acres of marsh, bottomland hardwood forest, and grasslands. It was authorized by the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission under the Migratory Bird Conservation Act “...for use as an inviolate sanctuary, or for any other management purpose, for migratory birds.” Additional purposes designated under the Refuge Recreation Act are “…incidental fish and wildlife-oriented recreational development, the protection of natural resources, and the conservation of endangered and threatened species.”

The refuge’s mission is to preserve and manage an undeveloped expanse of floodplain forest, marshes, rivers, and associated habitats within an agricultural and urban landscape through habitat management, encouraging public stewardship, educational programs, and private land activities.

Shiawassee Refuge is designated as a United States Important Bird Area for its global significance to migratory waterfowl.