LANSING, MI— The completion of the DNR’s new, 10-year State Forest Management Plan will be delayed by at least a year following the devastating ice storm that struck northern Michigan earlier this year.
The historic storm March 28-30 coated trees with more than an inch of ice in some areas, causing widespread damage in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. More than 900,000 acres of state forest land were affected, with trees of many species incurring varying levels of damage.
Damage assessment of stands and existing treatments is underway, and timber salvage harvests have begun. Both are being tracked closely to gauge their impact on the plan.
Once modeling is updated to account for storm damage, the DNR's planning team will then need to produce new harvest targets, wildlife habitat outputs, current and future age-class distributions and volume estimations, among other calculations.
The projected final approval date is June 2026.
