HIGH RESOLUTION AERIAL LIDAR MAPPING OF FOREST COVER FOR AMERICAN MARTEN HABIAT IN THE OLGA LAKE AREA, HURON-MANISTEE NATIONAL FORESTS, MICHIGAN

The Huron-Manistee National Forests contain mixed hardwood stands, wetlands and red-pine plantations grown in response to lumber harvesting done in the late 19th century. The forest supports a wide-range of fauna including the reintroduced American marten. In Michigan, American marten (Martes americana) typically utilize mixed coniferous/deciduous and deciduous forest types with forests that are characteristically late successional, have a closed canopy, and are diverse in vertical structure. These forest types provide essential resting site structures for the marten, which are used to provide thermal protection during winter and protection from predation. To better determine current forest-wide stand conditions and evaluate the distribution of pine-martin habitat, high resolution (~17 pts/m2) aerial LIDAR data was acquired in 2016 over a ~31 square mile area of the Manistee National Forest (referred to as the Olga Lake area). Using an area-based forest inventory approach, all trees >5 inch DBH were measured within a radius of 37.24 feet at 45 plots, which were distributed across the Olga Lake area in a stratified random sampling design that incorporated the variability of both density and height metrics in the LiDAR point cloud. Additional attributes for each measured tree (n=1418) within the field plots included height, species, crown ratio, crown class, and dead vs. living. Stem data collected in the field was compared to intensity-normalized LIDAR data to delineate individual crowns and to classify coniferous vs. deciduous trees on a forest wide-scale. Results from the area-based LiDAR inventory will be used to inform silvicultural prescriptions and land-use management decisions related to ensuring adequate available habitat for the American marten while balancing timber production. Additional map products derived from the LiDAR point cloud were derived for use in a variety of other land management applications, such as timber harvest planning, cultural resource and botany surveys, and watershed restoration efforts.