Northern Hardwoods Type

Northern hardwoods is the most common forest type in michigan making up a quarter of all michigan forest area and nearly a third of the volume.

Northern hardwoods type. Northern hardwoods are not just hardwoods that grow in the north. Hardwood trees usually have broad flat leaves as opposed to coniferous needled or scaled tree foliage another name for a hardwood tree is appropriately broadleaf. Most management techniques diverge from the natural gap pattern which is at the scale of single trees or. Northern hardwoods have been the most common forest type in michigan for centuries.

Regional conditions northern hardwoods and associated mixed wood types. Objectives and practices within this resilient forest type requires a wide range of options. Most but not all hardwoods are deciduous perennial plants which are normally leafless for some time during the year. In michigan the term specifically applies to stands dominated by sugar.

Thousands of acres of northern hardwood conifer forests grow on well drained fertile slopes of hillsides in new hampshire typically between 1 500 and 2 500 feet in elevation here sugar maple american beech and yellow birch are the dominant tree species mixed with red maple white ash and patches of hemlock at lower elevations and red spruce and balsam fir at higher elevations. Currently they cover about 5 million acres and the area is increasing 1 around 1800 there were about 7 5 million acres. Spruce northern hardwoods forests also have 25 conifers in the canopy. Northern hardwood forest types can be managed as even or uneven aged stands using a variety of silvicultural practices.

In planning these practices there are many factors to. Northern hardwoods northern hardwoods is a general term that refers to an association of broadleaf trees that occur in various combinations throughout the eastern and northern united states. The northern hardwood forest is a general type of north american forest ecosystem found over much of southeastern and south central canada ontario and quebec extending south into the united states in northern new england new york and pennsylvania and west along the great lakes to minnesota and western ontario some ecologists consider it a transitional forest because it contains species. The wood from hardwood trees tends to be harder because the trees grow at a slower rate giving the wood its greater density.

You can easily identify a hardwood from a conifer. Typical tree species include sugar maple basswood beech hemlock a conifer yellow birch american elm ironwood white pine a conifer and red maple. Mesic northern forest is a forest type of moist to dry mesic sites lying mostly north of the climatic tension zone characterized by the dominance of northern hardwoods particularly sugar maple acer saccharum and american beech fagus grandifolia conifers such as hemlock tsuga canadensis and white pine pinus strobus are frequently important canopy associates. Conservation wildlife and management considerations.