Trees: Northern Michigan, USA
Michigan’s nearly 4 million acres of state forest lands provide the state with clean air and water, materials for a strong forest products industry, and places to hunt, fish, hike, ride ORVs and camp. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) takes forest management seriously. That means maintaining our sustainability certifications and carefully planning out how we care for state forests. These management strategies include science-based methods such as planting and harvesting trees, improving wildlife habitat, reducing wildfire risk with careful prescribed burning and controlling invasive pests so we’ll have forests now and for future generations.
Carbon Sequestration and Wildlife Values through Native Tree Plantings
Your contributions enable us to plant red pine (the primary species), white pine, white spruce, northern white cedar and northern red oak across managed forests in northern Michigan. Newly established red pine stands are grown and managed for approximately 80 years, after which a final harvest is conducted, products such as lumber and utility poles are crafted, and a new stand is established via planting. Products from these harvested trees sequester carbon for several decades to centuries. Furthermore, these native species can provide food (pine/spruce nuts, acorns) and habitat for various species of wildlife. Each seedling is planted by hand, and annual planted site maps are available to project partners.
Support Local Communities through Active Forest Management
The logging industry is a crucial sector of rural economies in northern Michigan. Active management of the state forest via harvest operations and replanting efforts ensure a continual supply of renewable timber to support local economies.
Who
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Forest Resources Division
Where
Northern Michigan – Multiple stands across Michigan’s northern Lower and Upper Peninsulas
CO2 Sequestration Estimates Over Each Tree’s Lifetime:
A single red pine grown over 80 years can sequester between 2.2 and 3.7 metric tons of CO2. At final harvest on Michigan DNR land, this would equate to somewhere between 440 and 740 metric tons (1,936 to 3,256 lbs) of CO2 per acre.
Verification Partner
The Michigan DNR-FRD contracts regeneration surveys at the end of the first and third growing seasons. Results routinely show our seedling mortality is less than 10%, meaning our program is extremely successful in turning your investment into a tree, and in turn a highly productive forest stand. Further, wood products grown and harvested on DNR-managed land are certified by two premier non-profit forest certification organizations: the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Planting Timeline Expectation
We plant all program seedlings in a short time window to maximize survival – generally mid-April through mid-May. As such, no more than one year would elapse before funded seedlings were planted.
