Future Tense Trees – A nursery startup featuring trees native to the state of Michigan. The focus concerns tree species with a natural range exclusive to the southern part of the state. The prevailing intention and reason for the startup name is to propagate these more southerly trees for introduction further north within Michigan to assist adaptation to climate change. Such endeavors have been termed “assisted migration”.

Providing Trees of Michigan Genotype

We believe that the origin of the seed source is of great importance in selecting trees to plant in a given region. Some of the trees recommended do not occur in the state at this time, but suitable habitat is hypothesized by the end of 2100. For these species, we source them at the limits of their natural northern expansion in adjacent states to the south.

Informed by Climate Change Projections

Our offered list of species is the result of research conducted by a number of governmental and non-profit agencies, their work focused on anticipating the impacts of climate change of the distribution of specific tree species. We here offer trees that they have suggested for consideration for use in Michigan under moderate and high emission projection modeling. *Tree AtlasV.4 (https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/atlas)

Product Page Demonstration

For each tree species that we offer, we present its current range in the US and projected habitat by 2100 under high and moderate emission projection modeling. The following images describe the content shown when a project is clicked on. The green areas in the Emissions Projections images below indicate the projected range. The darker the shade of green, the more ideal the conditions.