Q. Where is the nearest old-growth forest?
A. The Old-Growth Forest Network maintains a list of the country’s oldest protected forests, and Witherell Woods in Detroit’s Palmer Park is the closest. Located forty miles from Ann Arbor, off Woodward Ave. between McNichols and Seven Mile, it “contains a true Oak-Beech Climax forest and some of the oaks exceeding 350 years in age were planted by Mother Nature herself,” according to the network’s website.
Michigan’s best-known old-growth forest is at Hartwick Pines State Park, the largest state park in the Lower Peninsula. Named for its forty-nine-acre stand of old-growth pines, Hartwick Pines is 194 miles north of Ann Arbor, near Grayling.
Not on the network’s list, but much closer to home on Dixboro Rd., some oaks in Washtenaw County’s Goodrich Preserve are estimated to be 100–200 years old.
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