Integration Day 3 Trip (Hartwick Pines): A Lesson in Decision Making

On this week's integration day, we students visited several places to learn about the forests surrounding Au Sable. While no insect specimen collection took place, we gained significant insights into how our forests sustain the entire ecosystem (which are crucial to supporting insects) and how anthropogenic disturbances have impacted them.

First, we learned about how our everyday activities contribute to unsustainable practices, even here at Au Sable. We use cars, electricity, and gas, emitting carbon dioxide at increased rates. A key question posed was how we reconcile the tension between being separated from nature in the city and being integrated with nature out away from the city. While it may be easy to see humanity as the focus in the Anthropocene, Rolston III said in the assigned reading for this day that we should not turn it into the "Anthropocentric era" [1].

 

Figure 1. Our group at Au Sable location.

Our first outing was on the trail at Au Sable. The forest here is not old growth; it was logged in the late 1800s, like most of Michigan, until they ran out of suitable old growth pine. Our professors taught us to identify signs of human disturbance, much like examining a crime scene. The forest is no longer composed of old growth white pine, which now exist as stumps. These stumps, covered by various plants and tree species, are nutrient-rich compared to the sandy soil, allowing new trees to grow their roots into them. To measure these differences, we dropped rectangular frames on an old growth stump, counted plant species and individuals, and did the same with an adjacent area about three meters north.

The results indicated that certain plants preferred growing on the stumps, and they were the only places we found tree seedlings and saplings. White birches, for example, only grew out of the stumps. This illustrates how choices made hundreds of years ago still affect today's forest. Our professors shared Aldo Leopold’s story about shooting a mother wolf and the resulting ecological collapse, highlighting the long-term impacts of human decisions, comparing it to the effects we saw with logging [2].

 

 

Figure 2. Abandoned oil field.

Our second stop was an oil field patch, a clear-cut square in the forest where oil extraction once took place. Au Sable itself benefits financially from an oil pad still extracting natural gas. Some oil fields are still operational in Michigan. We learned the term Anthropogenically Induced Arrested Succession, which refers to a disruption in the natural progression of ecological succession caused by human activities, preventing the ecosystem from developing to its full potential. Efforts to reforest the abandoned oil field with pines and other trees have largely failed. Researchers tested why these trees weren’t taking root by planting different tree species and applying various soil treatments. This ongoing experiment, tracked for 10-15 years, showed that discing and mulch helped trees grow the most among the few surviving pines [3]. This seems to indicate the quality of the soil is a factor. The current plant community on these pads also prevents reforestation due to the allelopathic chemicals they emit, which were introduced by anthropogenic activities.

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3. Old growth white pine area in Hartwick Pines.

Our final stop was Hartwick Pines, where we learned about old growth pine forests and logging. This forest has existed since the late 1800s. The logging crisis of that era led many to leave due to unprofitability. The Hartwick family donated their land to the state park system, prohibiting logging for profit [4]. To keep these old growth pines healthy, it’s sometimes necessary to remove certain trees and conduct controlled burns, replicating natural processes that enabled the pines to thrive. Native Americans had long practiced controlled burns to make the land fertile for hunting and farming [5].

 

Figure 4. An infographic we saw in the museum detailing the effects on rivers.

We also stopped at the logging museum in Hartwick Pines to discuss the effects of logging. When loggers arrived, they destroyed old growth forests and made dams with the felled trees. The removal of old growth white pine had great consequences for the ecosystem. A video detailing the history of logging and the "lumberjacks" can be found here [6]. In spring, these dams were blown up, sending logs downstream to sawmills on Lake Michigan. This disturbance destroyed ecosystems, causing fish species like Grayling (which is ironic, considering the name of the closest city) to disappear from Michigan’s waters by the 1930s. Today, the Manistee River still contains a lot of sand and is no longer as clean as it used to be. While it may be easy to blame those who worked logging these forests, they did not understand the environmental damage they caused. The responsibility now lies with us to use our knowledge to protect these lands and forests for future generations or remain complicit in their continued degradation.

 

Figure 5. Sawing equipment on display.

Figure 6. Representation of how trees were cut down.

In conclusion, the lessons from this integration day were invaluable. We saw firsthand how historical logging practices have reshaped the landscape and how ongoing anthropogenic disturbances continue to affect ecological succession. The trips showed the importance of sustainable practices and ecological literacy in our interactions with nature. God gave us the land not simply for ourselves in our current moment, but for all generations to use for his glory, as all of creation was made to worship him in harmony. Whether we live in the city or closer to nature, our actions have far-reaching impacts, and it is up to us to make informed, responsible choices for future generations [1].

 

Figure 7. Photo in museum of "lumberjacks." Their decisions still impact us today. What decisions will we make for our future generations?

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

1. Rolston, H. (2012). A new environmental ethics: The next millennium for life on earth (pp. 40-47). Routledge.

 

2. Leopold, A. (1949). Thinking like a mountain. In A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (pp. 129-133). Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://trainingcenter.fws.gov/resources/knowledge-resources/wildread/thinking-like-a-mountain.pdf

 

3. Van Dyke, F., Walderman, S., Harju, S., Faulkner, J., Hindy, K., Kittel, P., Marshall, T., Redick, C., Rowley, D., Tulsa, J., Vander Stet, V., Wolfe, A. M., Keas, B., & Watters‐Hicks, K. (2022). Effects of soil treatments and tree species on reforestation of well pads. Restoration Ecology, 30(8), e13658. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13658

 

4. Dwyer, D. (2018, October 17). From wilderness to wasteland: How the destruction of Michigan’s forests shaped our state. Michigan Public. https://www.michiganpublic.org/environment-science/2018-10-17/from-wilderness-to-wasteland-how-the-destruction-of-michigans-forests-shaped-our-state

 

5. National Park Service. (2024, March 18). Indigenous fire practices shape our land—Fire. Retrieved June 7, 2024, from https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fire/indigenous-fire-practices-shape-our-land.htm

 

6. Ed McKenzie (Director). (2013, November 4). White Pine History: Logging in Michigan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV918Rzf7Zc

 

 

Image Sources:

 

All image credits go to blog author, Callen Hein.