Michigan Forest Communities - Michigan Association of ...

Northern Pine and Oak Barrens
are now oak dominated because of the
intense and repeated wildfires of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Trees in barrens can be large and widely
spaced, creating a park-like look, or
crowded and stunted in scattered thickets.
Fire scars at the bases of tree
trunks are common.
Signature trees
One conifer dominates many of
these barrens (least of all in Lake and
Newaygo counties), usually as bushy,
open-grown trees or as spindly trees in
dense thickets:
• Jack pine
Several oak species occur as large
trees or as clumps of basal sprouts:
• White oak
• Northern pin oak
• Black oak (southwestern part of
Region II)
Two other conifers are important,
not so much because of their number as
their large size:
• Red pine
• White pine (principally Lake and
Newaygo counties)
Red pine was important historically
in many northern barrens, occurring
mostly as large “superdominant” trees
that survived frequent fires, but it is
less well represented today.
Sand cherry.
Other trees
Minor tree associates—the hardwoods
often occur as sprouts—include:
• Red oak
• Red oak hybrids
• Bur oak
• Red maple
• Black cherry
• Quaking aspen
• Bigtooth aspen
• Sassafras (southwestern part of
Region II)
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