Welcome to Rice Woodland, part of the Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve. The area that you see is an old growth deciduous forest dominated by oak and hickory species. There are pockets of savanna understory species throughout this woodland. Fire suppression from timbered areas followed colonial settlement into the area. Today we have a better understanding of the importance of fire in these oak-hickory systems and although fire was reintroduced to the Rice Woodland in November 2023, this side of the woodland was excluded from fire.