Apr 28, 2021
LANSING — The state of Michigan responsibly manages 3.9 million acres of state forest land using such techniques as timber harvests, tree thinning, planting and prescribed burns to keep forests thriving and healthy.
To make the work more efficient and easier to oversee, the DNR divides those millions of acres into 15 forest management units, which are further divided into compartments. Those are blocks of land generally 1 to 3 square miles (600 to 1,800 acres) in size.
Management activity in each forest management unit is finalized two years in advance, and each compartment is formally reviewed once every 10 years. This summer and fall, recommendations for 2023 are being presented.