Excerpt from Effects of Forest Cover on Soil Freezing in Northern Lower Michigan Those stands which discourage snow accumulation tend to have more and deeper frost. Thus the dense conifer stands, which inter cept a considerable amount of snow, have deeper frost and a greater proportion of concrete frost. On the other hand, the oak and north ern hardwood stands, which reduce snow accumulation only slightly, have relatively shallow frost of which only small amounts are of the concrete type. Similarly, the duration of soil frost is affected by forest cover. The dense conifer stands shade the forest floor from the sun. This retards the melting of snow and the warming of the forest floor. As a result both snow and frost remain longer here than in the more open forest types.