- Location
- Michigan/Wisconsin
- Current protection
- Ottawa and Chequamegon-Nicolet national forests and neighboring public lands
- Status
- Active advocacy by RESTORE: The North Woods; no bill
- Tier
- Tier 1 · National Park
- In the book
- Not featured in Undiscovered America
Why should it be a National Park?
South of Lake Superior, the forests of Michigan's western Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin run for millions of acres, a country of lakes, bogs, wild rivers, and waterfalls where wolves, lynx, and martens still live. The Porcupine Mountains, Sylvania, and the headwaters of the Ontonagon and Wisconsin rivers are all part of it.
The Midwest has no large National Park. A park across these forests would be the largest in the region, protect them from logging and mining, and give tens of millions of people a wilderness within a day's drive.
The history of National Park Campaigns
In 2021 the New National Parks campaign proposed a three-million-acre North Woods National Park across three of the most carbon-dense national forests east of the Rockies. RESTORE: The North Woods continues the push, with the park drawn to take in the proposed Copperwood copper mine beside Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, which the grassroots group Protect the Porkies is fighting.
- Distinct National Park attempts
- 1 (2021–present New National Parks campaign proposal)
- Other designation attempts
- 1 (national forests)
Sources
- Michael Kellett, "A Modest Proposal: We Need More National Parks," Sierra (August 17, 2021)
- RESTORE: The North Woods, "Create National Parks" (restore.org, 2026)
- 1931–1933
The Ottawa, Chequamegon, and Nicolet national forests are established on cutover land.
- August 17, 2021
The New National Parks campaign proposes a three-million-acre North Woods National Park in Michigan and Wisconsin.
- 2020s
RESTORE: The North Woods proposes the park as a way to stop the Copperwood mine beside the Porcupine Mountains, alongside Protect the Porkies.