Vegetation Recovery at the Duck Lake Fire Site A Decade Later

Keywords: forest regeneration, jack pine, fire
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

The Duck Lake forest fire occured May 2012 in Luce County, Michigan on the shores Lake Superior. The fire ravaged jack and red pines, scorching more than 21,000 acres. The third largest wildfire in the State of Michigan, and the largest since the 1980s. After the fire, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources went to work replanting the region while many of the jack pine also released their seeds during the fire. Over the years, DNR crews planted a million trees in 2013, and a million more in 2014, then half a million a year in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Previous research evaluated the use of UAS-based imaging for mapping saplings from these regeneration attempts (). The research presented here evaluates the broader recovery effects of regeneration processes on the region and interactions between regeneration methods (planted vs natural methods) and stand density.