Soils provide the basis on which forests develop and fire, for many forest ecosystem types, creates and maintain vegetative conditions. Although often viewed as a negative force, fire is a critical ecosystem process for many of our coniferous forests in the northern Lower Peninsula. Landscape ecology is a field of scientific inquiry that aids forest management by investigating patterns and processes (such as fire) at broader scales than a single forest ownership.

Soil Habitat Types by Burger and Kotar (2003)

Soil habitat types for the northern Lower Peninsula help the user understand successional pathways a forest may go through on a given site. Some soils are a little drier and are more apt to produce pine ecosystem types. The next step up in soil moisture is dry mesic. From here, soils become a little more mesic still and may produce forests of sugar maple, American beech, and associated species.