The history of a forest might be measured by the trunks and branches looming overhead. But for some MSU researchers, a forest’s future lies in what’s growing under their feet. Every summer for nearly three decades, a team led by Ecology, Evolution and Behavior core faculty member Richard Kobe has made its way to Manistee National Forest in northwestern Lower Michigan to look for new trees that have sprouted. At less than a year old, the youngest seedlings growing in the understory aren’t much taller than their toes. But now, the team’s annual counts of 10 common tree species are starting to reveal clues to what the region’s forests might look like in the 20, 40 or 100 years to come. …In a new study published in Global Change Biology Communications, McNichol and Kobe compared years of seedling data collected at 12 sites spread across a 370-square-mile area in Michigan’s Manistee National Forest.