Are Michigan’s Forests at Risk?

MSU professor speaks on U.S. Forest Service shakeups, invasive species, and ethical forestry practices

Depending on where you grew up, an acre of land can feel like a lot or a little, yet everyone can picture this parcel size and relate to it in terms of scale. But zoom the lens out to 20 million acres, and the sheer vastness of that land becomes almost impossible to fathom—yet that is exactly what Michigan can lay claim to, in terms of forests.

Trees cover more than half of Michigan’s total landmass, and while much of it is private or state-managed, about three million acres fall under the purview of the National Forest Service, with Michigan being home to more national forest land than any state east of the Mississippi River.

Under the current federal administration, a significant shakeup is underway in the National Forest Service, so we checked in with a prominent Michigan forestry expert to find out what our forests need.

“Everything about forestry comes down to regeneration,” says Professor Richard Kobe, who is currently serving his 14th year as the chairperson of the Michigan State University Department of Forestry. “Forests are essential to the planet, so the most critical question we have to answer in forestry becomes, ‘How do we ensure our forests regenerate, i.e., continue?’”

USDA Plans to Move Forest Service Headquarters

On a national scale, the science of trees and how that science is leveraged through forest management hinges on the whims of federal policymakers. Case in point, on March 31, the USDA announced it will move the Forest Service headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, and begin a “Sweeping restructuring of the agency to move leadership closer to the forests and communities it serves.”

It is natural for forests to experience disturbances such as fire, windstorms, ice storms, droughts, and floods. But how the forest bounces back from natural disturbances or from timber harvesting is what scientists like Kobe seek to understand and support through management programs.

Kobe says that, in some respects, it is advantageous to have federal agencies located closer to the people and places relevant to those agencies.

“There’s pros and cons, because at the same time, there are a lot of important interactions taking place in D.C., including coordination with other agencies,” Kobe says. “D.C. is where the conservation groups are. It’s where the forest products industries are. It’s a centralized hub. Taking the Forest Service out of that hub could mean taking the Forest Service employees out of the essential conversations happening in D.C. that determine the future of our forests.”

Kobe says he’s in a “wait and see” mode about the move, but that he also worries about the institutional knowledge that may be lost if long-time Forest Service employees are unwilling to relocate from D.C. to Salt Lake City and instead retire early or pursue other employment.

Forest Service Field Research Offices in Michigan Slated for Possible Closure

Another news bulletin came across the wire this spring regarding the USDA’s intent to close Forest Service research centers across the nation, including four in Michigan: East Lansing, Houghton, L’Anse, and Wellston.

“It appears this move is mostly about cost-cutting and closing research centers that are seasonal or expensive to maintain,” Kobe says. “As the order is currently laid out, the intent is not to fire or layoff the Forest Service employees who work out of those centers, as the centers slated for closure in Michigan are either seasonal or they have nearby locations where the employees can work out of.”

Kobe identified the Wellston and L’Anse research centers as primarily seasonal. The Houghton and East Lansing centers are close to university spaces at Michigan Tech and MSU, where Forest Service researchers and scientists already have existing relationships and workspaces.

“As long as the USDA is just trying to reduce their operating costs without sacrificing people or knowledge, we should be ok,” Kobe says.

Managing Michigan’s Forests: Climate Change

No matter what happens at the federal level, Kobe is staying focused on the big threats to our forests: climate change and invasive species.

“Talk to any person, and I mean any person, who works in forestry, and they will tell you they are observing and planning for changes in weather patterns,” Kobe says. “Not all of them label it climate change, but everyone has observed it, and we need good research to make decisions on how we can prepare our forests for these shifting patterns and the cataclysmic weather events they cause.”

Kobe ticked off a few changes people can expect, including larger rainfall events and flooding, followed by longer dry periods and a higher risk of fire, plus more extreme storms with wind, ice, and snow.

“There are practical considerations you have to take into account when budgeting for climate change,” Kobe says. “If we’re trying to regenerate a forest that was recently harvested, do we plant larger seedlings that are more resistant to drought? Doing so may be more expensive, but it may be the correct choice.”

Meanwhile, few factors affect a forest’s ability to regenerate as much as invasive species, and Kobe says that here, too, scientists have to find answers that promote regeneration, and policymakers have to listen.

“When the Emerald Ash Borer came through the Port of Detroit a few decades ago, it spelled the end for tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of ash trees in Michigan alone,” Kobe says. “That had a devastating effect. Ash trees are often the first to start growing in an area that had been disturbed, like a former agriculture area, so it’s an important species for forest regeneration. It has been an essential timber species, too. Most baseball bats and many tool handles are made from ash. The tree has played a pivotal role in human life, ecologically, economically, and socially. Seeing it devastated by a human-caused and preventable source is tragic.”

Kobe continues, “Having research on the movement of those pests and others, knowing what could be coming in from around the world, how we could control for them, if we could find tree genetics that are resistant to invasive species, all of that data-finding and scientific research is critically important to managing these issues. We always have to be proactively thinking about the next invasive species while also mitigating the ones we already have.”

Where Ecology and Economy Meet

Then there’s the matter of forestry as it pertains to sustainable timber harvesting.

“Forests are one of the few places in Michigan where ecology, sociology, and economy all meet,” Kobe says. “Humans value the forests for their recreation potential. The woods mean something to us, whether it’s for hiking, hunting, camping, or simply disconnecting from urban America. And ecologically, we and countless other lifeforms survive because we have trees that create habitats while also absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. But we need even more incentives than that to protect forests; mainly, we need science-based markets that connect forests to the economy.”

Though it may seem paradoxical, Kobe explains the need for an economic connection to the woods by describing how, if a landowner can make money from sustainably harvesting his forest, he’s less likely to sell the land and see it developed into a strip mall or a data center.

Kobe says there’s a way to integrate forests into the economy that protects forest health and incentivizes regeneration. “Remember, the absolute worst thing that can happen to a forest is to remove it, so we have to find additional incentives to keep them here,” Kobe says.

Kobe describes an MSU program called MassTimber, which is developing new ways to integrate timber products into modern construction, enabling the construction of up to 18-story buildings with engineered wood products. The technology is associated with much lower greenhouse gas emissions than current building methods, and it incentivizes the production and maintenance of healthy forests.

“From climate change to invasives, fire prevention, storm mitigation, and promoting economic activity, we need knowledge on how to preserve our forest resources, and science gives us that knowledge,” Kobe says in closing. “If we can get policymakers to listen to the science, our forests will be ok.”

Photo courtesy of MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

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