The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a project that would include clear-cutting some sections of a 200-square-mile section of the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
The current version of the Silver Branch Vegetation Management Project includes approximately 1,500 acres of clear-cutting and 24,000 acres of a type of clear-cutting that would leave certain trees intact. Another 57,000 acres would be subject to more targeted logging efforts.
Beyond clear-cutting, the proposed project includes plans for improvements to recreational areas like campgrounds and lake access, a wild rice seeding project, and gravel mine expansion. It also includes efforts to bolster habitat for the Kirtland’s warbler, which was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2019 but remains on Michigan's list of threatened species.
Unlike national parks, which focus on preservation, national forests are meant to be used to balance a variety of needs, including timber, fishing, and grazing, in addition to recreation.
Some environmental groups in the state, however, have asked the Forest Service to do more research into the project’s potential environmental impacts before making a final decision.
A coalition of these groups sent a letter and a 73-page report detailing their concerns about the project to the Forest Service in late January. The letter raises concerns about potential harm to mature trees in the area and the fragmentation of wildlife habitat. It also warns the project could increase the risk of runoff and invasive species, specifically from the part of the proposal that would involve building 13 miles of new roads and rebuilding 466 miles of existing roads throughout the forest.
Calvin Floyd, a conservation advocate for Environment Michigan, one of the groups that signed the letter, said his primary concern with the project is the scope.
“This would be by far the largest project like this in the Ottawa for at least a quarter century,” he said. “And that scale is nearly one and a half times the city of Detroit, and it's an eighth of the entire Ottawa National Forest. So it's just an immensely large project in an area that is just so beloved by Michiganders.”
The environmental groups also worry the project would include land that's very close to the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness, infringe on the habitat of the endangered Northern Long-Eared Bat, and remove many trees more than 100 years old.
U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Trevor Hahka said in an email to Michigan Public the project will not enter the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness, all bat conservation measures will be followed, and older trees that are valuable to the ecosystem will not be removed.
Floyd said the coalition is not looking to completely stop the project.
“There is necessary vegetation management that needs to happen in the forest, we're absolutely not against selective harvest and essential ecosystem management projects. We believe that a project of this scale is really sort of using a sledgehammer as a scalpel, and just really taking a broad swath of forest across the U.P.,” Floyd said.
The coalition is asking the forest service to produce a full environmental impact statement on the project before it begins. The government has already completed a less intensive environmental assessment for the project, which found the project would have “no significant impact.”
Hahka said the Forest Service “will address all substantive comments, including those related to project scale, cumulative effects, climate considerations and alternatives, in the final decision using the best available science and extensive public input.”
He said if the project does move forward, it would follow required conservation measures and best practices to protect the environment.
The Forest Service previously offered a 30-day comment period in December. It will open another period in March, with a decision expected that month.
If approved, the Forest Service said the project would begin in June and last about 30 years, with periodic reviews.