NEWBERRY, Mich. – An entire stand of old-growth red pine trees — some estimated to be nearly 400 years old — was discovered by a Michigan DNR forester during a routine forest checkup in the Upper Peninsula.
Located near Lake Superior and the Two Hearted River in the eastern part of the UP, the ancient pines were largely wiped out during the logging boom of the 1800s, but these trees survived.
Michigan researchers found the stand of trees in 2025 while surveying the land for the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, an initiative from the Michigan State University Extension that gathers and manages scientific data on the state’s rare, vulnerable, and declining species and natural ecosystems.
Old-growth red pine is one of the rarest forest types in the Great Lakes Region, according to MSU Extension, with only 0.2% remaining.
The eastern half of the red pine stand, named “Ghost on the Shore” by the forester who found it, has several trees over 200-years-old and a few that were aged to around 350-years-old, officials said.
Read the full Michigan Natural Features Inventory report here.
