Snapshot of the Forest

Ecologists group plants and trees usually found together into communities. These plant communities are the different kinds of "forests" on the Reservation. These differ from site to site because of variations in sunlight, moisture, soil type, and climate. Plants with similar site requirements usually live together. Animals that find the food and shelter they like will make use of the community in order to live.

Due to its location at the northern cusp of the transitional "tension zone" that divides the state's central hardwood forest from the northern hardwood forest, the Menominee forest contains a higher diversity of tree species than forests found either to its north or south. The diversity is demonstrated by the fact that thirteen forest cover types have been identified in the range of sites on this relatively small patch of forest.

The Menominee have one of the most diverse forests in the Midwest. Northern Hardwoods is the most common forest cover type in terms of acreage, covering approximately 32% of the forest. This is followed by White Pine (16%), Swamp Conifers (10%), Aspen (9%), mid-tolerant hardwoods (7%) and Red Oak (6%). By sawlog volume, Sugar Maple is also the most common species (23%), followed by Hemlock (22%), White Pine (19%), and Red Oak (8%).

The Menominee Forest contains thirty-three major tree species: hard maple, eastern hemlock, eastern white pine, red oak, basswood, yellow birch, aspen (bigtooth and quaking), cedar, soft maple, pin oak, white birch, beech, ash (black and white), red pine, white spruce, black cherry, balsam poplar, white oaks, hickory, jack pine, tamarack, balsam fir, black spruce, and butternut.

The reservation boundary encompasses just over 235,000 acres with about 233,000 acres in trust status. Of this, about 217,000 acres are commercial forested acres, the majority of which is under active forest management.