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Know Your Forest Numbers
Article #182, April 2012
By Bill Cook

     Michigan forests have a major influence on our economy, lifestyle, and environmental quality.  They are notable within both the state and the nation, as well as around the world.  The Great Lakes are an important global feature and forests strongly define this region.
 
     Regional forests are not homogenous.  Rather, they contain an immense array of diversity, including the manner in which they are used.  Casual observation only hints at the depth of the forest resource.  Consider some of these features that can surface with a closer look.  These descriptors do not include the extensive urban and residential forests, and each can be more fully detailed, which shows greater variability and complexity. 

     Forests are always changing, either through natural processes or forest management.  While statistics will vary over time, and depending upon how the data are sliced and diced, it's apparent that forests are critical to human survival and welfare.  Monitoring is a critical step in knowing how to manage and care for forests.
 
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Trailer
Bill Cook is an MSU Extension forester providing educational programming for the Upper Peninsula. His office is located at the MSU Forest Biomass Innovation Center near Escanaba. The Center is the headquarters for three MSU Forestry properties in the U.P., with a combined area of about 8,000 acres. He can be reached at cookwi@msu.edu or 906-786-1575.


Prepared by Bill Cook, Forester/Biologist, Michigan State University Extension, 6005 J Road, Escanaba, MI  49829
906-786-1575 (voice),  906-786-9370 (fax),  e-mail:  cookwi@msu.edu

Use / reprinting of these articles is encouraged. Please notify Bill Cook.
By-line should read "Bill Cook, MSU Extension" Please use the article trailer whenever possible.

Michigan State University is an affirmative action equal opportunity institution.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital status or family status.   (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.)



This website is maintained by Bill Cook, Michigan State University Extension Forest in the Upper Peninsula.  Comments, questions, and suggestions are gratefully accepted. 
Last update of this page was 24 April, 2012


 

 

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