Potential Natural Vegetation Group (PNVG):

The hemlock-white pine PNVG in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan occurs primarily within extensive, flat to gently undulating glacial lakebeds (former Lake Algonquin) underlain by silty, well to somewhat poorly drained soils. Drainage catenas across interspersed poorly and very poorly drained lowlands facilitate co-occurrence of subregionally important wetland species such as cedar, balsam fir, and white spruce in upland positions with hemlock and white pine dominants. Vegetation Description In descending order of occurrence based on analysis of GLO line tree observations, the dominant species recorded along section lines by GLO surveyors were hemlock, white pine, cedar, fir, and spruce. Early successional aspen and white birch comprised 10 % of the GLO line trees, and late successional inclusions of sugar maple and yellow birch comprised 9%. Rogers (1978) reported only 8 % of the hemlock stands sampled from Wisconsin to Nova Scotia were even-aged, indicating that very few of the hemlock stands were initiated after a catastrophic event such as a wildfire. In an old-growth white pine forest of Canada, white pine persisted as the dominant species over a seven-century period, indicating that white pine can be self-replacing (Quinby 1991). In a study of old growth white pine in Canada, Guyette et al. (1995) reported that canopy dominance and tree size suggested an even-aged structure, whereas actual ages of dominant trees ranged from 267 to 486 years. White pin