The Ottawa National Forest encompasses 1 million acres on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, extending from the south shore of Lake Superior to the Wisconsin state line. The Forest is home to abundant wildlife, scenic views, rolling hills, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and vibrant displays of fall colors. The Ojibwe people ceded the land to the U.S. government in the 1842 Treaty and retained the right for future generations to hunt, fish, and gather on the lands. Enrolled members of a dozen federally-recognized tribes in the area can still use Ottawa National Forest campgrounds for free.
The Forest includes more than 50,000 acres of designated wilderness. The Sylvania Wilderness Area’s old-growth forests and pristine lakes provide habitat for a wide range of animal and plant life, including rare orchids, bald eagles, loons, and osprey. Abundant lakes offer plenty of opportunities for canoing and kayaking.
The Wild and Scenic Sturgeon River flows from the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness Area. The gorge is a mile wide and up to 350 feet deep. Whitewater kayaking is popular on the river but can be dangerous during spring runoff.
The landscape of the McCormick Wilderness Area was willed to the Forest Service by Gordon McCormick, a descendant of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaping machine. The forest here has recovered from the logging era that ended in the early 1900s. Straddling the divide between the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan Watersheds, the Wilderness Area shelters headwaters of the Huron, Dead, Pahokee, and Yellow Dog rivers.
The Ottawa National Forest provides a variety of camping opportunities at established campgrounds as well as dispersed backcountry camping. The Forest’s waterfalls are popular attractions, and wintersports enthusiasts enjoy cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling on the Forest.
The Ottawa is also home to the J.W. Toumey Nursery, established in 1935 to meet the need for more tree seedlings. As described on the Forest Service Nurseries and Seed Extractories webpage, the purpose of the nursery is to “provide locally adapted plants and seed for reforestation projects, provide an assured source of desirable species and stock types for restoring native ecosystems, and maintain the agency’s position as a conservation leader.”
Toumey is the last remaining Forest Service nursery in the eastern half of the country. It grows 12 million seedlings during the summer, and about 4 million of those are shipped to northeastern national forests each year. The nursery greenhouses produce an additional 600,000 plants to supply other forests each year. The nursery grows shrubs, grasses, forbs, and herbaceous plants in fields and greenhouses. It also extracts and cleans seeds.
