Tools to read your land.
Read your woods before the site visit. Atlases, calculators, and checklists to ground a conversation in what actually grows here, what could grow here, and what the programs say.
Explore the vegetation atlas →- Featured tool -
The historical vegetation atlas. Michigan as it was.
Tool · 01
“The last continuous record of the forest that stood here for ten thousand years.”
Comer et al. (1995)75 vegetation types
Atlas
Michigan Historical Vegetation Atlas (c. 1800)
Explore Michigan's pre-settlement vegetation by county and community type. A reference for restoration targets and historical site context.
Seventy-five vegetation types reconstructed from the General Land Office surveys (1816 to 1856) and reassembled by MNFI ecologists in 1995, grouped into browsable communities. Filter by community, isolate a single type, or compare 1800 against modern land cover.
Useful context for oak woodland restoration, invasive species planning, and wildlife habitat work.
Further reading: What Michigan looked like in 1800, and how we know.
Guides & checklists
Free, printable resources.
- How to use these tools -
Before the site visit.
Read the land first
Open the Atlas and find your county. Note the community types your acreage sat in circa 1800. That's the ecological grain you're working with or against.
Set a target
Decide which historical community you want closer to: a restored oak savanna, a managed northern hardwood, a fen recovered from drainage. The tool gives you the candidate list.
Bring it to the visit
Share the URL or a screenshot when you book a site visit. We'll spend the walk-through verifying what's still on the ground and what wants to come back.
Contact
Ready to talk about your woods?
Tell me about your property: county, acreage, and goals. When the project is a fit we walk the land together, and a clear written scope and quote follows.
By telephone
(517) 290-0043Direct line for landowner inquiries. Calls and messages returned within 24 hours
Brandon Baird · Michigan Registered Forester · #47097 · Works only for landowners, never for mills or buyers.
Service area: The southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, within about a two-hour drive of Lansing