What does it mean to see the forest for the trees when the trees, well, aren’t there? For the Forest Service, this question brings both the past and the future into focus as they work on restoring historically open habitats in a corner of Wisconsin’s Northwoods. The signature answer that binds past conditions, present management activities, and future outcomes is: fire.
“We’re trying to emulate nature as much as we can wherever we can in all of these treatments,” Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest silviculturist John Lampereur told me when we met in late April amongst the nascent Pine Barrens that he’s helping restore.
Pine barrens are a globally rare habitat type, and remnants in Wisconsin resemble heaths or savannahs, characterized by diverse shrubs, a grassy base layer, scant canopy, recurrent fire, and – the most exciting part – prolific blueberry patches.
