GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Grand Rapids park has been inducted into the Old-Growth Forest Network, a non-profit focused on identifying and protecting old-growth forests.
Aman Park is the latest inductee from Michigan into the network and only one of seven recognized old-growth forests in the state.
The over 300-acre park was donated to the City of Grand Rapids by Jacob Aman in 1926 and is home to six trails that are each around a mile in length. Aman Park is the largest park owned by the city.
To celebrate the park's induction into the Old-Growth Forest Network, the Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a guided hike Thursday evening.
The hike begins at 6 p.m. and will include commentary from local ecology and history experts. It is expected to last about an hour and a half.
The Old-Growth Forest Network is a non-profit organization that is working to protect over 200 old-growth and mature native forests across the country.
The non-profit says that less that only a few old-growth forests are left in the United States, with the majority of them in the western half of the country.
Logging, invasive species and natural disasters over the last several hundred years have removed or drastically altered old-growth forests in the United States.
To find other old-growth forests and learn more about the organization, visit OldGrowthForest.net.
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