Mackinaw State Forest
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The Mackinaw State Forest is a 717,500-acre (2,870 km²) forested area owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and operated by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. It is located in the northern area of the Lower Peninsula within the eight counties of Alpena, Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet, Montmorency, Otsego, and Presque Isle. The forest is served by I-75, U.S. 23, and U.S. 131.
Most of the Mackinaw State Forest was logged for Red Pine and White Pine during the golden age of Michigan old-growth lumbering, which ended about 1910. Much of the cut-over land was seen as worthless and was allowed to revert to the state of Michigan in lieu of unpaid property taxes.
Second-growth trees found within the Mackinaw State Forest include the alder, aspen, Paper Birch, Yellow Birch, Hophornbeam, Sugar Maple, balsam poplar, willow, Balsam Fir, hemlock, larch, Jack Pine, Black Spruce, White Spruce, and Northern Whitecedar.
The forest is managed today for second-growth logging, recreation, and tourism purposes. Starting in 1918, the state stocked part of the forest with a herd of free-range American elk. Today numbering about 850, the elk live in and around the Black River area where Cheboygan, Montmorency and Otsego counties come together.
50 miles (80 km) of the North Country Trail run within the Mackinaw State Forest.
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