NORTHPORT, MI – Old-growth white pines and century-old hemlocks surround the shoreline at Kehl Lake near the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, the latest woodsy spot in Michigan to gain a special forestry recognition.
Nonprofit Leelanau Conservancy last week enrolled its Kehl Lake Natural Area into the Old-Growth Forest Network and celebrated with a guided one-mile hike on Sept. 25 at the 279-acre protected wetlands and forest. The site is the second in Leelanau County to be registered in the nationwide network under the condition of no future commercial logging.
“This designation helps safeguard the trees and ecosystems that make this place so special,” said Becky Hill, the conservancy’s director of natural areas and preserves.
“We are committed to stewarding these forests so that all may experience their beauty and wonder – for today, and generations to come,” she said.
The natural area near the Lake Michigan shoreline is an important wildlife corridor as a valuable habitat refuge along a critical migratory bird flyway. There are two miles of trails for visitors and a viewing platform at a marshland for watching waterfowl and songbirds.
Kehl Lake Natural Area is known for its abundant spring ephemeral wildflowers, along with summertime ferns and bright red cardinal flowers blooming around the shoreline. Various mosses and wild mushrooms are plentiful there, a diversity which is a key indicator of an old-growth forest, Hill said.
Leona Addie, the old-growth network’s Great Lakes regional manager, said Kehl Lake Natural Area stands out as exceptional, even in the abundantly scenic Leelanau Peninsula.
“The big-tooth aspens, hemlocks, and especially the white pines tower over you, you pause to appreciate the plant and fungi biodiversity or listen to wildlife, and head out to the platform overlooking Kehl Lake. It’s serene,” Addie said.
Old-growth forests filter water, store carbon, provide habitat and food for wildlife, and create resilient areas with rare and endangered species, she said.
Officials said the lands surrounding Kehl Lake were used for centuries by Indigenous people for seasonal gatherings and camps. Settlers began farming the southern part of the property in the 1860s.
“Kehl Lake Natural Area is a place of deep ecological and cultural importance. We acknowledge and honor the Anishinaabeg people, who have cared for this land for generations,” Hill said.
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The Old-Growth Forest Network hopes to designate one forest in every wooded county in the nation that will be allowed to age into old-growth conditions. A portion of Leelanau Conservancy’s Palmer Woods Forest Reserve near Maple City was enrolled into the network earlier this year, making the Kehl Lake site the second added to the list from Leelanau County in northwest Lower Michigan.
Kehl Lake Natural Area is the 23rd forest in Michigan to be added to the old-growth network. Another forest at Kent County’s Lepard Nature Preserve is expected to be registered next month.
Other Michigan forests enrolled in the old-growth network include portions of Hartwick Pines near Grayling, Michigan State University’s Baker Woodlot in East Lansing, Arcadia Dunes in Manistee County, and a nature sanctuary at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula, among others.
Counties across Michigan and other states can nominate a forest that either already has old-growth trees or will be managed to grow old and provide associated environmental and health benefits. The network includes more than 300 forests across 40 states, and the organization promotes preserving biodiversity and the beauty of nature.
Old-growth forests are high-biomass areas that are considered important to the fight against climate change. That’s because large trees within such forests are known to pull greater amounts of carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere than younger trees, research shows.
Researchers also found that old-growth forests have provided socio-cultural benefits across human history, including mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing.