North Shore Trees

North Shore forest types

The native North Shore forest types came in three belts: a very narrow belt of white cedar and white spruce right along the shoreline, a wide belt of pine and birch forest along the glacial lake plains, and a narrower belt of maple, oak and pine forest along the ridgelines. The wide middle belt was heavily white and red pine between Duluth and Little Marais, and mostly paper birch and quaking aspen between Little Marais and Grand Portage.

Logging and settlement history has changed some of that forest distribution.

Great examples of each of these forests can be seen today:

Many North Shore streams have excellent examples of coastal cedar and spruce along their shores.

Near the Encampment River between Two Harbors and Gooseberry, Highway 61 traverses a dramatic stand of white pine once typical of the glacial lake plain.

The Superior Hiking Trail crosses extensive stands of maple forest, especially on the ridgelines between Silver Bay and Lutsen.

Whither the withering birch?

The North Shore was once known for its extensive paper birch (Betula papyrifera) forest. These forests are now dead or dying. Park trails and scenic highways are now lined with bare white branches. Nature is moving on in a process known as ecological succession.

The North Shore paper birch forest got its start in the 1910s and 1920s. Following the intense white pine logging era and the resultant slash fires, large stretches of the North Shore were left bare. Early homesteaders tried to keep the land open. These were ideal conditions for paper birch forests to start. But birch trees, and the forests they make up, only live 80 to 100 years.

As those birch reach the end of their natural lifespan, additional stresses have emerged. Paper birch do not thrive in the warmer, drier conditions of the last few decades. Insect pests such as the bronze leaf borer and forest tent caterpillars have shortened the lives of many birch stands. These classic North Shore birch forests are at the end of their lifespan, and the forest is changing.

Bring back the Lost Forest

As the beloved birch forest dies off, the conifer trees are not coming back on their own. There are not enough mature pines to provide seeds, and those seeds that do reach the ground find thick grass and no soil in which to germinate. White-tailed deer eat the young seedlings that do grow. Sugarloaf and its community partners have been working to restore the North Shore’s “lost’ coastal forest of spruce, pine and cedar.

Visitors to Sugarloaf Cove can see many forest restoration “tricks” in action, from sturdy cages to protect young seedlings from the deer to cedar nurseries protecting volunteer seedlings.