June 02, 2026
On June 1, the Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) and five other organizations filed an objection to the U.S. Forest Service’s April 16 draft decision to proceed with the Silver Branch Vegetation Management Project, which proposes to clear-cut 25,000 acres of aspen and paper birch trees and heavily log another 55,000 acres of mostly northern hardwoods in the Ottawa National Forest in Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula.
The objection notes that the proposed logging would significantly impact mature forest stands across the 127,000-acre project area; wildlife habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the gray wolf and two species of bats; federal wilderness; and the vital tourist economy in the Western U.P. And as the objection explains, the Forest Service accordingly erred in rejecting a January 22 request by ELPC and many other organizations and businesses to more thoroughly evaluate the environmental impacts of the massive Silver Branch logging proposal and consider potential alternatives to avoid or minimize those impacts before moving forward with the $50 million federal project.
Silver Branch is the largest logging project proposed in the Ottawa National Forest in decades, affecting roughly 200 square miles of public land that extends from the northern border of the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness Area south to U.S. 2 near Iron River. It would clearcut stands along the wilderness boundary and within a 2,000-acre area that has been proposed as a wilderness addition. The national forest lands would be logged, sometimes repeatedly, over the project’s 30-year period.
Joining ELPC in the objection are Environment Michigan, Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition.
“It’s simply not plausible that a logging project nearly 1.5 times the size of the city of Detroit in a national forest would have no significant impacts and therefore should not be studied further,” said ELPC Senior Policy Advocate Kelly Thayer. “ELPC and our co-objectors contend that the U.S. Forest Service under federal law must consider the massive logging proposal’s individual and cumulative impacts and develop project alternatives to avoid or minimize harm to the public lands, wildlife, wilderness, mature and old-growth trees, and the outdoor recreational economy. Current and future generations are counting on the Forest Service to project these priceless public lands.”
Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Service is required to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to fully consider the impacts of the Silver Branch project. The Forest Service is also required to identify and evaluate potential alternatives to the project that would better protect the Ottawa National Forest’s vital natural resources and wildlife. Instead, the Forest Service decided to advance the logging project after issuing a short environmental assessment in late December that declared the project wouldn’t have any significant impacts and offered no alternatives.
The Ottawa National Forest’s release of the Silver Branch draft decision on April 16 triggered a 45-day objection period that ended on June 1. The U.S. Forest Service must issue a written response to ELPC and co-objectors concerning our objections within 45 days following the end of the objection filing period, or approximately July 16, although the Forest Service has the discretion to extend the response period for up to 30 days and can participate in resolution discussions with the objectors during the response period as well.