Manuel joined MNFI in 2024 and has focused primarily on supporting natural community mapping in Michigan’s state parks. Previous experiences include research to assess impacts of chronic deer browse and of introduced earthworms on understory plant communities, forest inventory and health monitoring, and environmental conservation and education. He spent time in the Keweenaw to earn his MS in applied ecology, which offered opportunities to conduct research across the western UP and to support field research campaigns in Costa Rica and Isle Royale National Park. In a past life, Manuel used an undergraduate degree in political science to work as a paralegal and as a teaching assistant abroad. He has used his recent free time to identify (and eat) many mushrooms, gather and plant seeds, and botanize on the Huron River.

TSN Conference 2026

January 23rd, 2026 (Friday) // 1:50 pm – 2:50 pm // Room 105 // Natural Communities of Wilderness State Park: Insights from a Summer of Vegetation Mapping // As part of an ongoing effort to create natural community maps of Michigan state parks, scientists with Michigan Natural Features Inventory conducted wall-to-wall vegetation surveys of Wilderness State Park during the summer of 2024. Manuel Anderson, an ecologist with MNFI, will discuss how the park’s landscape—shaped by ancient seas, glaciers, and wind—supports a diverse mosaic of high-quality natural communities. The park features extensive coastline, calcareous poorly-drained lake plain, and Nipissing-age aeolian dunes. This varied geomorphology influences vegetation patterning and provides for a range of community types, from boreal and dry-mesic northern forests to fens and swamps. The talk will highlight high-quality examples of natural communities found in the park and discuss how the mapping effort can inform conservation priorities, guide management decisions, and reveal the ecological complexity embedded within Michigan’s coastal landscapes.