Located on the shore of Lake Superior in western Upper Michigan, this park has 35,000 acres of unlogged sugar maple and hemlock forest, and has been a focus of Lee Frelich’s Research in disturbance ecology since 1981. Forests in all stages of succession and stand development are present in one of the few landscape-scale forest remnants left in the eastern U.S.
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Michigan, contains 35,000 acres of old growth hemlock and sugar maple forests. Photo: Lee Frelich.
Giant sugar maple near Presque Isle River. Photo: John Knuerr.
Presque Isle River rapids. Photo: Jörgen Sjögren.
Swedish moss expert, Jörgen Sjögren, inspecting Anomodom moss on a maple trunk. Photo: Lee Frelich.
Moss-covered basswood trunk. Photo: John Knuerr.
Hemlock seedling browsed by deer. Photo: Lee Frelich.
Three hundred year old white pines on Overlook Trail. Photo: Lee Frelich.
Yellow birch saplings enter a gap caused by death of three ancient hemlocks. Photo: Lee Frelich.
Multi-age hemlock forest, trees from 80 to 550 years old. Photo: Lee Frelich.
Multi-age forest of mixed maple and hemlock. Photo: Lee Frelich.
Ancient hemlock forest, Pinkerton Creek. Photo: John Knuerr.
