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Vegetation of Michigan circa 1800s [Michigan]

University of Michigan · 2020 Full Details

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Full Details

Title
Vegetation of Michigan circa 1800s [Michigan]
Description
Between 1816 and 1856, Michigan was systematically surveyed by the General Land Office (GLO), which had been established by the federal government in 1785. The detailed notes taken by the land surveyors have proven to be a useful source of information on Michigan's landscape as it appeared prior to wide-spread European settlement. Surveyors took detailed notes on the location, species, and diameter of each tree used to mark section lines and section corners. They commented on the locations of rivers, lakes, wetlands, the agricultural potential of soils and the general quality of timber along each section line as they were measured out. Biologists from the Michigan Natural Features Inventory developed a methodology to translate the notes of the GLO surveys into a digital map that can be used by researchers, land managers, and the general public. Explore this GIS data to see the 31 types of land cover that resulted from the survey. Click here to see the original report .
Creator
University of Michigan
Publisher
University of Michigan
Temporal Coverage
Last Modified: 2020-12-14
Date Issued
2020-09-24
Rights
Please credit Michigan Natural Features Inventory and authors in credits when using and sharing this data.
Access Rights
Public
Format
ArcGIS FeatureLayer
Language
English
Date Added
August 10, 2025

Links

Cite and Reference

  • Citation
    University of Michigan (2020). Vegetation of Michigan circa 1800s [Michigan]. University of Michigan. https://mbgna-umich.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/umich::vegetation-of-michigan-circa-1800s (web service)
  • BTAA Geoportal Link

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