A Michigan State University forestry researcher is leading a $500,000 climate resilience project to help identify which trees are most likely to thrive in Michigan’s forests as the state’s climate becomes warmer and more unpredictable.
Funded by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the project explores "assisted tree migration," a process where trees are tested and sometimes moved to areas where they’re better suited for future conditions. The research, led by forest genetics professor Jeremy Johnson, is designed to help preserve Michigan’s forest ecosystems and economic productivity amid rising climate pressures.
Johnson and his team are planting tens of thousands of trees across nine “common garden” sites statewide. These research plots are designed to test how tree species from different regions perform under a shared experimental setup, across a range of climate zones and soil types. The selected species include six conifers such as red pine, jack pine and eastern white pine, along with the American chestnut, a once-dominant hardwood nearly wiped out by chestnut blight.
The test sites span Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, northern Lower Peninsula and southern Lower Peninsula. Each location represents a different climate zone and includes three types of soil: dry and sandy, moderate and rich with moisture. This allows researchers to study how climate and soil interact with the genetic traits of each species.
“It’s important to consider the fact that you can’t move the soils with you,” Johnson said. “They have to be able to grow well and be productive on a variety of site conditions...we’re planting tens of thousands of trees... but survival and height are the big ones,” he added, referring to the traits his team will track over time.
According to Johnson, species like red pine, which he said is one of Michigan’s most economically important timber trees, are already at the southern end of their natural range. Without intervention, these trees may not be able to survive long term.
Using a strategy called a “common garden model,” Johnson’s team is collecting seeds from various regions and planting them together in uniform conditions. This helps isolate genetic differences and determine which families or lines of trees grow best under certain environmental stressors.
“When we find those that do grow maybe just a little bit better in what would be a warmer, more variable precipitation environment, we can select that tree and we can put that into a breeding program,” Johnson said. “Trying to identify the genes that are responsible for the improved growth, for example.”
The research also incorporates genetic sequencing to identify traits, such as drought or cold tolerance, that make some trees more adaptable than others. Johnson said this work can inform both immediate decisions and decades-long forest management strategies.
“Trees are essentially undomesticated crops,” Johnson said. “This isn’t corn or wheat where they've got thousands of cycles of breeding... but we have to have trees on the landscape for 50, 100 years or more to maintain their economic value.”
The forest products industry supports over 90,000 jobs in Michigan and generates roughly $26 billion annually, according to the DNR. Johnson said keeping those jobs and ecosystems stable requires adapting forest strategies to a changing climate.
He said that success will depend on collaboration, not just between MSU and the DNR, but also with tribal nations, private landowners, industry leaders and local communities.
“We have relationships with trees in a variety of ways from our tribal partners to different businesses and homeowners and urban landscapes,” Johnson said. “The trees provide all of these services. And so trying to take into account those values... to just ensure that we have healthy forests that are adapted to the future, I think that’s the goal.”
Over the next two decades, researchers will monitor tree growth, survival, phenology and genetics at each site. Johnson said the hope is to eventually expand the study to include hardwoods and other species.
“We have to start that right now because the rate of climate change...we really are going to run out of time in terms of trying to understand how to do this type of work,” he said. “We need capacity... in order to make this really successful.”
