From the President's Desk

I am truly at a loss for words over Warren’s passing.

The first time I met Warren was at the Society of American Foresters Conference in the late 1990s, when I was fresh out of school. I believe the discussion was on forest health, though I don’t recall exactly. At the time, I was struggling to follow what the presenter was saying until Warren spoke up. He had a wealth of knowledge and explained things in plain, everyday language that made sense. Later, I introduced myself to him, and he told me he was a schoolteacher. He never mentioned farming or logging, and for years I wondered why a teacher was so deeply immersed in the forest industry and was at every meeting. It wasn’t until a few years later, through the Master Logger Program, that I realized Warren was, in fact, a logger.

As everyone knows, Warren had his hands in nearly every part of the forest industry. I came to know him best through his involvement with the Master Logger Program. In my opinion, Michigan would not have a program without Warren. He helped get it off the ground, served as an auditor from the very beginning, and even ran the program at a critical time when it might have fizzled out without his leadership.

I spent countless hours driving around the state with Warren, auditing jobs. He was meticulous in his documentation, especially with photographs. While most auditors would take pictures and add captions later, Warren insisted on writing a caption for every photo as he took it.

During our travels, Warren always had stories to share. I already knew he was a walking encyclopedia of the forest industry, but he was also fearless in trying new things in his own business. He had one of the first cut-to-length harvesters I knew of. On his log truck, he was running tire inflation systems long before the technology became common in the trucking industry. He experimented with a small chipper for biomass, blowing chips onto sandy trails to improve hauling. He planted different species of trees on his farm and practiced unconventional silviculture to study how forests regenerate. Warren was never afraid to innovate.

It was also clear how proud Warren was of his children. He spoke often of all three of you, but since our conversations usually revolved around logging, it was obvious how much he admired Karl’s success running Suchovsky Logging. I don’t know how often Warren told Karl directly, but he certainly knew Karl had things well in hand, which allowed him to travel and advocate for the forest industry with peace of mind.

On a personal note, Warren, I will miss skiing with you. I was genuinely surprised when I learned you love to ski.  I knew you for years before this came up. I will also miss our Friday night phone calls, when you were in your forwarder and I was in mine.

Thank you, Jennifer, Sarah, and Karl, for sharing your father with our industry for so many years. I cannot begin to grasp how many lives Warren touched. He was a mentor to me and, in many ways, a father figure. If Gifford Pinchot is considered the “Father of Forestry” in the United States, then Warren Suchovsky is surely the “Father of Forestry” in Michigan.

Thank you, Warren, for everything you have done. We will all miss you deeply.

Yep… Yep… Uh-huh

Mike Elenz

GLTPA President