The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

A halo of trees forms a great ring that extends across the United States, Canada, Russia and Europe. These northern forests are an international resource that provides wood and fiber for many day-to-day products, uptakes carbon and releases oxygen to the very air we breathe. And, they are providing habit to a vast array of plants and animals, including migratory songbirds, gray wolves, bear, elk and moose.

In the Great Lakes region, a wide swath of intact forest spans northern Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These northern forests help moderate regional climate and reduce sediment flowing into the headwaters of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.

They also drive local economic activity, support year-round recreation and tourism and provide raw materials for industries from furniture to home construction to paper.

In recent years, the management and ownership of forests in the region has changed. Large, industrial forests are being parceled and sold. Smaller, non-industrial forests are increasingly fragmented by roads and other encroachments. Regardless of their protected status, these northern forests are susceptible to threats such as the invasive emerald ash borer and climate change.

Despite our reliance on northern forests, we are not prepared for their long-term protection in the face of these changes. Decisions made in light of today’s economic realities don’t take into account the decades, if not centuries, it takes a forest to re-grow. We must plan and act now for what our forests must be in 50 or 100 years.

To address the changing circumstances and implement long-view conservation, the Great Lakes Project helps:

• Conserve a network of large-scale forests: Pursuing both public and private land protection efforts to create a connected matrix of working and protected forests.
• Test sustainable forestry practices: Utilizing our hundreds of thousands of acres of protected working lands as a learning laboratory where we are answering questions such as: How can we optimize productivity and economic gains while supporting native biological diversity?
• Restore forests to improve resilience to continued stresses: Mitigating forest pests and diseases while managing forests to diversify tree age and species.
• Inform and influence public and private industrial forestry practices: Applying the lessons learned, recommending practices and protocols and developing financial incentives for private landowners.

Keeping the northern forests intact, bolstering their resilience and connecting large tracts of land all form the basis of our Great Lakes forest strategy. Collaborations and supportive policy decisions make it easier for all entities that manage forests to do just that, now and in the future.