Hello CLM blog readers

“Oh wow” pretty much sums up my initial experiences on the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The office is involved with different projects in the forest, many of which require onsite inspections and a chance to explore the regional flora. The Ottawa is currently emerald ash bore free however, its arrival is imminent. The Eco team, under the assumption that the black-ash will disappear, is making plans to protect the black-ash swamp communities. The plan is to identify large, predominantly black-ash swamps, girdle some black-ash trees, and then reseed the area with suitable tree species in order to replace the black-ash stands while keeping the surrounding community intact.

Forest service worker sanding near a large Thuja occidentals.

Also, I participated with other projects including: species surveys, tree planting along a riparian corridor, installing an experimental barrier at a boat launch to prevent the spread of invasive species on boats, and working with students and community partners to manually control garlic mustard. Instead of going into detail on all these projects, I will provide a short montage of cool plants I have seen on the Ottawa.

COUNT IT: I made the front page of the local paper, it was below the fold but I think it still counts. The entire office was out taking care of our adopted highway. I probably would have gone with a different caption.

Micah Melczer

U.S. Forest Service, Ottawa Supervisors Office, Ironwood, MI