The Empty Juice Box
Greetings,
The following excerpt comes from the December 14th lesson in “Our Daily Bread.” “When I led a ministry for moms of preschoolers, we hunted for an image to describe the unending demands that mothers experience. Changing diapers, wiping noses, picking up toys. It turns out the image was right in front of us: a disposable juice box that had collapsed on itself. Moms can feel like empty juice boxes.”
In addition to moms, the collapsed juice box also describes the feelings of many loggers, especially the lower volume producers I’ve had the opportunity to speak with over the past few years. Many are overwhelmed with debt, high maintenance and repair costs, balancing finances, family life, and an unreliable workforce that doesn’t show up on time or work the hours needed to get the job done. Much, if not all of it, is caused by the massive loss of raw wood markets which continue to decline throughout the U.S. Adequate income is based as much on moving volume as it is on the price per ton or cord. There is no shortage of idle equipment sitting around either which is an indicator that wood consumers are looking like collapsed boxes also.
Multiple times many of us have intentionally collapsed boxes and bottles to make room in the recycled bin. You crush it to push the air out of it and tighten the cap to make sure it stays collapsed right. Ever try to un-collapse one? Unscrew the cap to let the air back in and they very rarely return to their original state of being. There is always something a little different in the way it reshapes itself. The same is true of the loggers and the forest industry. After Rapids, Duluth, and Park Falls were shuttered, several loggers were crushed like bottles with the air taken out and the cap put on making reshaping to their original business model difficult. After an adjustment period and realization that those markets were gone forever, loggers began reshaping their businesses. They are rededicating their equipment to other uses, downsizing by selling off excess equipment, reducing dependency on logging with sawmilling, firewood processing, chipping, mulching or have exited logging altogether.
Several pulp producing paper mills still struggle to remain open, the mills who consume roundwood pulp are spending resources developing different products to remain competitive, and the lumber market, according to reports, is far from stellar. A personal observation is that the mills remaining viable either have a low operating overhead or have expanded with highly efficient equipment to increase production while lowering overhead with lessened dependence on employees.
Hippocrates is said to have stated that “it is far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has." If I interpret that correctly it means that we should never lose sight of a person’s humanity and that a person’s humanity is far more important than the disease. That statement raises some questions for thought doesn’t it.
Is logging a disease that invades a certain type of person? If so, what type of person are they? For one they love the freedom of working independently from direct supervision such as that found in a factory. They also like working outdoors regardless of what the environment throws at them. They are dedicated to working hard and they can think and make decisions in multiple situations. They are inventive and always looking for a better way. Working as a logger in the woods provides everything this type of person could want even in those times, such as now, when it is less than financially adequate.
Loggers are rarely willing to change professions because they love what they do. I can attest to that. I was happy as a logger and had no intention of changing what I was doing and to this day, I still think about harvesting and hauling forest products. My CDL is current just in case. Back to the point, knowing that loggers love what they do, is their humanity being taken advantage of? The more thought given to what Hippocrates said, it sure seems that the disease which has invaded the person described above is being exploited doesn’t it? Sure, there are those who cry wolf no matter what because that’s their nature, and there are those without the advice of a financial planner to guide financial decisions, but that is not the majority.
The ultimate question then, is what’s more important, humanity or profit? That is a question everyone will need to think about and answer for themselves. It may be a great topic for a family discussion around the dinner table. Corporations are corporations and nothing GLTPA or any other organization can do will change that. On the other hand, loggers are humans with the ability to make choices. Each one can decide for themselves if their business dealings are based on agreements that promote humanity or if those dealings are more of the robotic style with no regard for the human factor. One will lead to a well-balanced, less stressful lifestyle, and the other, not so much.
On December 4th, 2025, the GLTPA Board of Directors held its 3rd and final board meeting for the year. Board meetings always open with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and in addition to the opening of this meeting, President Mike Elenz asked for a moment of silence to remember a very long-time friend, lifelong advocate for the forest industry and GLTPA board member Warren Suchovsky. Warren was a true advocate and road warrior who spent thousands of hours driving to meetings and talking about the positive impacts of forestry in a world that depends on forest management and forest products for its wellbeing. Rest in peace Warren!!
Next on the agenda the board held its board elections and recognized newly elected regional board members. For Region 4 Nathan Tessmer, owner of Tessmer Trucking LLC from Birnamwood was elected to replace Aaron Burmeister. Nathan attended the December board meeting, and we look forward to his participation. Congratulations Nathan! Region 7 had a change shortly after their regional meeting in which Dana Welch/McEwen was reelected to serve another term. The GLTPA board majority must always be loggers/truckers, and those loggers and truckers are elected at the regions. Because President Mike Elenz sold his logging business and is doing forestry work, Mike was elected to an open at-large position during the December board meeting which created a logger board member opening in Region 7. Anytime a vacancy occurs after elections, the board can fill the vacancy by appointment with a new member to complete the vacancy term. At the end of the term, the appointed member can run for reelection. At this time, the board voted to appoint Matt Musselman, owner of Legendary Forest Products from Lake City MI to fill the vacant Region 7 board position. Congratulations Matt and we look forward to your attendance and participation in the coming years.
As stated earlier, Nathan Tessmer has replaced Aaron Burmeister in Region 4. I personally what to thank Aaron for 30 years of service on the old TPA and new GLTPA boards of directors. We’ve had a lot of adventures, been to a lot of meetings, and I can say with all sincerity Aaron is true player and not a pretender. He speaks up when its time, is usually the first to throw out a challenge when raising money for the PAC or other projects and was always in line to volunteer at the EXPO, and multiple other industry and landowner functions. Thank You, Aaron! You are the best!!
Additional board action to note is that board elected to provide a donation of $25k to Michigan Tech for its Forest Biomaterials Research. The board toured the MTU Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) Lab in Houghton as part of its August board meeting. The board was very impressed with the work being done to utilize northern wood species and wants to support the program in its quest for a CNC machine to make CLT parts for assembly.
In other business the GLTPA Board will be initiating a road maintenance assistance program in late spring or early summer. Several years ago, when companies like Consolidated and others owned large tracks of land, they built hundreds of miles of roads to access their timber. Some of those roads eventually became town or county roads. Companies were also considered good neighbors as they often supplied gravel, culverts and sometimes a grader to help locals with road maintenance. I am aware of the U.S. Forest Service doing similar things to help with local roads to this day. People had access to company lands and utilized the roads and more importantly had respect for those company landowners and their good neighbor policies. GLTPA has attended numerous town board meetings, and I can assure you that respect has dwindled greatly.
The maintenance assistance program is for GLTPA members and will have an initial funding of fifty thousand dollars with twenty-five thousand going to each Michigan and Wisconsin, respectively. Prior to the April GLTPA board meeting a subcommittee will be assembled to develop guidelines for use of the money and its distribution. Stay tuned for when the program is ready for use.
Additional good news comes from the Log a Load for Kids program. Because of the efforts of the Region 1 Log A Load team, who in October held their 25th annual Log A Load event, and because of generous donations from several Log A Load supporters, on behalf of the American Loggers Council, sponsor of the Log A Load for Kids program, GLTPA will distribute nearly $95,000.00 to seven Children’s Miracle Network hospitals throughout Michigan and Wisconsin. What a great testament to a humanitarian effort to help those in need. It is generosity in in its purest form. Perhaps this verse from the book of John chapter 7 v.38, says it best,
“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
God Bless and all the best for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Until next month,
Henry