Many Upper Peninsula land use issues exist. By way of introduction, here are two to consider when buying U.P. land: the effects of logging, and the history of recreational use.

Trees
The U.P. is a forested area, once covered with virgin timber of huge and rich proportions. This original forest was cut long ago; only a few scattered remnants remain as preserves. These days, timber companies like Mead Paper and International Paper own large acreages of second and third-growth forest. Given the intense current and past logging, any woods, or forest, or stand of trees you're interested in has been cut in some way at some time. And that logging history largely determines the quantity and quality of the trees you see today.

Sadly, timber-cutting practices have generally been poor here, even in the last decade. Clear-cuts, wherein every tree and sapling is leveled, still occur. These days, timber companies re-plant a cutover area with jack pine seedlings, but clear-cuts from 50 or 40 or 30 years ago have regenerated naturally, each in its own peculiar way. Each forest area also regrows in its own unique way after a so-called select-cut. Here loggers come in and pick and choose the types, sizes, and even shapes of the trees they cut. Sometimes loggers have come in only for the big pine trees, and so you'll find a forest forty years later with beautiful hardwoods and relatively few and smaller white and red pine and hemlock.

Another common select-cut method is to chop down only the straight trees. Straight logs sell well; their wood is good for furniture. Loggers will come into a second or third-growth forest, and cut primarily these straight trees, leaving the crooked, diseased, and leaning trees to dominate. The forest then doesn't easily grow straight trees for a while because they've been cut out of the gene pool, so I'm told. Nobody much values these biologically and commercially inferior trees, but the wildlife doesn't seem to judge them. Of course these critters don't have to pay taxes, either.

To elaborate a bit, crooked or leaning trees are known in the furniture business as stress(ed) wood. After this wood has been cut into lumber and stickered/stacked to dry, it will very likely warp in a way that makes it unusable: warped wood doesn't make good furniture or floorboards, for example. Therefore the value of stress wood is substantially less in today's timber market than straight-grown trees. But to see and wall among a crooked-tree woods, to be shown such a “stressed-out" forest, and to learn what is happening to that forest, somehow imprints upon a person much more than just reading the words here on the page.

So a potential buyer should understand the logging history of the forested parcel he's interested in because this logging use strongly affects the current and future value and appearance of the land. Crooked trees may not matter to you because you have transcended the world of money and aesthetics, but let it at least be a choice. Anyway, this topic is huge; I have only introduced it here. Therefore, wouldn't it be advantageous that you the buyer are given further such information when appropriate as you search for your land?

There is a lot to know and I feel obligated to study it and share what knowledge I know regarding my type of real estate, ie, forested land and recreational land. I am not a forester, but I have studied this field quite a bit, and I have listened and learned from foresters, loggers, and old-timers, as well as books. Logging history is an important consideration when you buy forested land, not the presence of asbestos, or lead paint, or whatever. But logging history and the consequent condition of the forest is only one factor to consider when looking for remote land here in the U.P.

History of Recreational Use
Logging is one way the land has been and continues to be used by modern man. But what about other major land use traditions? Such a question leads us to a second important issue: the way the land has historically been used recreationally, which affects how it's used today.

This brings me to the subject of fences. I was recently in the Texas hill country, and I saw fences everywhere, barbed wire especially. I know the rest of the country has fences also. Well, many “Yoopers" (a local nick- name for native U.P. residents) don't care much for fences. It's good to remember that until rather recently the U.P. was a geographically and culturally isolated region, sort of like Appalachia or northern Montana. The Mackinac Bridge linking the U.P. with the rest of Michigan wasn't built until the 1950's. Not so very long ago, there were far fewer people in the U.P. The land was less divided, the mostly dirt roads few and far between. Men could hunt and fish, and roam about the forests pretty much as they pleased. A cultural tradition of "open country" developed: even today, there are very few fences. Gates yes, fences, no.

Some Yoopers today are something of a throwback to this earlier time of freer access to the forests. Totally modern in technology, they buy SUVs, ATVs, snowmobiles, state-of-the art fishing poles, hunting paraphernalia. But when it comes to respecting modern laws regarding trespassing on private property, these Yoopers are back in the 19th century. The irony is that many locals own land themselves and seek to keep others off of it. But on their next ATV jaunt or backwoods joyride they will trespass without a thought on someone else's 40 or 80 or whatever. To make matters worse, non-locals buy U.P. land and do the same thing. What a mess.

Fortunately, it's not all disrespect for property and environment here. On an optimistic note, there are considerate people, locals and non-locals alike, who leave no sign of their presence on the land, be it private or public. They don't leave garbage in their wake, or hunt or camp without permission. And in the cultural tradition of the U.P., the owner of remote land usually does not object to this kind of non-invasive, non-destructive person just peacefully passing through, quietly respecting his neighbor and the nature around him.

But such toleration of considerate strangers could change. As more and more people crowd into the former "open country” of U.P. lore and legend, cultural traditions come under stress.

So this is the second issue: How U.P. forests have historically been used in the modern past by the local population. The locals were here first, recreationally speaking, and have left their mark. And sooner or later the outside buyer will come in contact with the local land-use attitudes and expectations. And the local attitude may be summed up as a peculiar mind-set regarding when it's OK to use “open country." The mind-set is slowly changing as Isolation decreases, but it's helpful to know what to expect. When you come up here, you won’t t see a lot of barbed wire and it's good to know why.

I feel that you as a potential buyer would like to know all of the above information. If you hire me, thereby obligating yourself to pay me if I find you the desired land, then I will give you my understanding of the land and environment you have placed yourself in. You want to know the customs, and you want to know the law.

By the way, regarding timber value, property taxes create the most problems for people in the long run. Here are a few other important factors to consider: survey, easements, and wetlands. I hope I've given you insights into this country up here. Many people have found their piece of heaven here, fulfilled their dreams. I have helped many of them. I encourage you to come up here and see it for yourself.