First, we would like to thank all those in attendance for our 2025 Forestry Field Day. Additionally, I would like to apologize if you were a regular attendee and did not receive an invitation to this year’s event. After hosting this event for 27 years, we had to change the way we review our list of invitees. When that happens, there can be and were some accidental omissions from the invite list. If you were one of them, please give us a call, and we will add you back to our list for the 2027 Forestry Field Day.
Second, I would like to thank our panel of speakers:
- Don Nelson of Domtar
- Aaron Routsala of Biosource
- Logan Wells of Northcentral Technical College
Also, a big thank you to Scott Bowe from UW-Madison for moderating the discussion with the speakers regarding products in the timber industry. Each speaker highlighted their individual expertise in the various end products that are derived from our great forest resource.
Although the day began with some rain, the clouds broke, and we were able to conduct our usual forest tours, have the trout shocking demonstration with the WI DNR, and enjoy conversations with some of our partners who displayed various timber industry highlights. The day concluded with the timber sports games hosted by Kretz forester Andy Roelse. I am proud that the winners of the timber sports games were Kretz Lumber employee owners Adam Basler, Richard Hoeppner, and Jay Wright.
As I mentioned above, employee ownership has been in place for 25 years since Kretz Lumber became 100% employee-owned. Fittingly, our legacy landowner for Forestry Field Day was Dan Kretz. Dan was a third-generation sawmill and dry kiln owner of Kretz Lumber until 2000, when he graciously sold the business to us, the employee owners of Kretz Lumber.
Dan was accompanied by Kretz Lumber’s retired forester, Dennis Fincher, who has managed Dan’s personal timber land for over 35 years. Thank you, Dan and Dennis, for being so gracious with your time!
One final shout-out to the Triple Progress 4-H club for baking all the goodies and serving lunch to everyone. You are all awesome!
Thank you again to everyone who volunteered time to display, speak, work, or attend the 2025 Forestry Field Day at Kretz Lumber.
Trout shocking at Kretz Lumber Forestry Field Day
Legacy Landowner, Dan Kretz
