Michigan’s thousands of miles of shoreline, beaches and dunes are not surprising: it touches on four of the five Great Lakes, all but Lake Ontario.
Michigan also has three National Forests within its boundaries (the Ottawa, Hiawatha and Huron-Manistee) and several National Wildlife Refuges. Within this helping of public land, generous for a midwestern state, are over 249,000 acres of designated wilderness under the management of the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service.
The Park Service manages just one wilderness in Michigan, but it is biggest of the bunch, the 132,000-acre Isle Royale Wilderness in Lake Superior. Only about 2000 acres of the island lie outside the wilderness. The island supports timber wolves, moose, beavers red foxes, snowshoe hares. More than 200 species of birds have been spotted there.
Also in Lake Superior is the Huron Islands Wilderness/National Wildlife Refuge. This area -- only 147 acres spread across eight small islands -- gets little use. Indeed, only one of the islands, West Huron Island, also known as Lighthouse Island, is open to general public use and then only in daylight hours
The Fish and Wildlife Service also manages the Michigan Islands Wilderness in Lake Michigan and the Seney Wilderness in the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. Six islands covering a scant 12 acres comprise the Michigan Island Wilderness. The major feature is large colonies of nesting great blue herons, herring gulls and double crested cormorants.
Nearly a quarter of the Seney National Wildlife Refuge is designated wilderness. Bald eagles, timber wolves, moose, black bears, coyotes, deer, foxes, mink and muskrat live there, along with a variety of ducks and sharp-tailed grouse.
There is designated wilderness on all three of Michigan’s National Forests. The lone wilderness on the Huron-Manistee National Forest -- and the only one in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula -- is the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area on the shore of Lake Michigan. Its 3450 acres support a variety of songbirds and waterfowl, deer and a range of smaller mammals.
Ottowa National Forest
The Ottawa National Forest on the Upper Peninsula spans nearly a million acres and within it are the Sylvania (18,327 acres), the Sturgeon River Gorge (14,500 acres), and the McCormick (16,850 acres) Wilderness Areas.
Hiawatha National Forest
There are six designated Wilderness Areas within the Hiawatha, also in northern Michigan: Big Island Lake (5856 acres); Delirium (11,870 acres); Round Island (378 acres); Horseshoe Bay (3790 acres); Rock River Canyon (4640 acres); and, Mackinac (12,230 acres).
Also within the Hiawatha National Forest is one of the nation’s newer National Recreation Areas, Grand Island. The island lies in Lake Superior, opposite Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, a unit of the National Park System. Views from the island’s highest points above the lake down onto Pictured Rocks on the Michigan coast are spectacular.
Forest Plans
All three of Michigan’s National Forests are now in the process of revising the land use plans by which the forests are managed. This formal process includes many important opportunities for public comment. Here are links for more information on forest plans:
National Lands in Michigan
National Parks
National Wildlife Refuges
U.S. Forest Service
Fast Facts
- Total acres in state: 36,358,000
- Total Wilderness acres: 249,218
- Total number of areas: 14
- Largest Wilderness: Isle Royale
- Smallest Wilderness: Michigan Islands
- Map of Wilderness Areas in Michigan
