The Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy, based in Marquette, is working toward the creation of the proposed Dead River Community Forest. It seeks public input and donations for the project. (Photo courtesy of UPLC)

MARQUETTE — Trees, trout, teaching and trails.

Those four words were the focus of the Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy’s annual meeting held Wednesday at the Ore Dock Brewing Co. in Marquette.

Discussed were how these “four T’s” tie in with the UPLC’s proposed Dead River Community Forest, a multi-partner collaboration that will protect land and provide the public with additional access to 186 acres of healthy forest adjacent to the conservancy’s current Vielmetti-Peters Conservation Preserve in Negaunee Township. The proposed forest would protect a total of 309 acres of forested land on the edge of greater Marquette — an area that UPLC indicated has been eyed for the development of housing and timber management.

Consider the term “community forest.”

“We need your input,” UPLC Executive Director Andrea Denham said. “This is a community forest. We’re doing it for community engagement. We’re doing it for the community. We are not making all the decisions. This is done for the exact purpose of doing what you all, the community, want to have happen up here.”

People can take a survey about the community forest, make a donation and learn about other UPLC conservation efforts at the UPLC website at uplandconservancy.org.

Denham noted that UPLC recently received an anonymous one-to-one matching grant of $25,000, with donations to be doubled toward the creation of the community forest. She said UPLC has about $90,000 to go toward that goal.

Education, habitat components

Adam Naito, an assistant professor at Northern Michigan University, said the proposed DRCF is important for education and research.

“Every forest tells a story, doesn’t it?” Naito asked. “What’s it like now? What was it like way back when? How did it change?”

One of UPLC’s objectives with the DRCF is to create educational opportunities for a variety of demographics, he said, including college students.

His NMU students, Naito said, can study the tree species at the DRCF and discover how much biomass is in the forest.

When the time is taken to learn about the forest, learn about the site characteristics, assess them properly and take the proper precautions to protect the aspects of the ecosystem, that can benefit the site, said Rexx Janowiak, senior forester with Green Timber Consulting Foresters.

“It’s very, very possible and very beneficial to implement some sort of forest management to help mitigate climate change, how to do forest health and also work in some recreational goals,” Janowiak said.

He indicated it’s important to maintain large, old trees along river corridors since they drop leaves and woody debris to develop a habitat. In fact, he stressed it’s important to maintain trees of all sizes to ensure to keep soil stability.

“If we’re doing forest management, we do not want to cut up right up to the Dead River (and) create a skid trail that channelizes water into the stream and causes all kinds of harm downstream to affect thousands of people,” Janowiak said.

John Highlen, president of the Fred Waara Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said there’s a “natural connection,” both literally and figuratively, between the community forest and TU.

“The Dead River Community Forest ties directly into our mission, which is to protect, reconnect, restore cold-water fisheries in our watersheds in the Upper Peninsula for current and future generations,” Highlen said.

What needs to be kept in mind, he noted, is that a significant part of a landscape is the water.

“That’s really our goal and our mission — this whole project — is to make sure that as we’re developing this forest for everyone’s use and enjoyment, that we are making sure that we do it in a way that will protect cold-water resources,” Highlen said.

Small creeks also have to be considered, he said.

To that end, the Fred Waara Chapter plans to build small bridges that fit in with the landscape to protect these creeks that hold a lot of aquatic life, including trout, said Highlen, who has researched small creeks in Alger County.

“You’d be amazed at the things you find in some of those creeks,” he said. “We found lots of brook trout. We found trout up to a foot long in some of these little creeks you can hop across. We found a 16-inch salmon in one of these creeks, so these are significant creeks to protect for their own sake, let alone for the sake of the river itself that they actually flow into.”

Highlen said the chapter also wants to build a raised boardwalk through a low-lying area so people can access the waterfalls or river without destroying the habitat, as well as installing access steps where feasible.

Lori Hauswirth, executive director of the Noquemanon Trail Network, talked about how the NTN can assist with DRCF trails.

She believes about 2.5 miles could be built in the forest.

“It’s super exciting,” Hauswirth said. “We want to get people on the land. We want to build trails that are sustainable. We want to guide the use on the land, whether it’s hiking, biking, nature viewing, whatever it may be.

“Trails can be built to guide that use and make it a special time for everybody who steps on that land.”

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.