It's time to get out into our Wisconsin forests and bag the biggest buck! Enter the 2016 Kretz Lumber Company’s Big Buck Contest and you could win more than just bragging rights. Every entrant has a chance to win!

There are two ways to win:

1. Biggest Buck: $50 Fleet Farm gift card
   
   
2. Wild Card: $25 Fleet Farm gift card (One winner will be randomly selected from all eligible contest entries.)

To enter our contest:

1. Like Kretz Lumber Company's Facebook page. 
   
   
2. Bag your buck and post a picture on our Facebook page by 11:59 pm CST on 11/28/16.
   All photos submitted must be bucks taken during the 2016 Wisconsin rifle season and shot in one of the following Wisconsin counties: Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Shawano, Menominee, Forest, Oconto, Portage, or Waupaca. No other submissions will be accepted.
   
   
3. With your submission, include your score.
   We are using a complete honor system.* To determine your score:
   
   1 point per inch of inside spread
   + 1 point per “point” number of antlers 1” and longer
   = Total Points
   
   An example: 
   Inside spread = 15 inches 
   Eight 1-inch “points” = 8
   15+8 = Total score of 23.
   
   *Kretz reserves the right to disqualify any entries suspected of cheating.

We will announce the winners the week of November 28, 2016 on our Facebook page.

Good luck and have a safe hunt!

This contest is in no way sponsored or administered by Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for this contest's purposes.

Submit your best Wisconsin autumn photo!

Get outside and share with us your best autumn scenery photo. Enter our contest by uploading your favorite photo to our Facebook page. We’ll compile all entries into an album and fans will then vote on their favorite. The image with the most likes at the end of the voting period will receive a $25 Mills Fleet Farm gift card!

To enter our fall Facebook photo contest:

1. Like Kretz Lumber Company's Facebook page.
   
   
2. Post your submission to our page by 11:59 pm CST on October 16, 2016.
   Only one photo/submission per person. All photos submitted must be your personal images and cannot be purchased or copyrighted. Image must have been taken in Wisconsin.
   
   
3. All submissions will be added to a Facebook photo album on October 17, 2016. Kretz Lumber Company Facebook fans will then vote by liking their favorite image in the official album through October 27. The picture with the most likes as of 11:59 pm CST on October 27, 2016 will win one $25 Mill’s Fleet Farm gift card.
   
   
4. Enjoy the great outdoors and good luck!

By Charley MacIntosh, MAT Region 2 Board Member and Kretz Lumber Company Forester

Logging can often be left behind as the topic of agriculture arises. As a result, opportunities to educate and raise awareness for the economic and environmental benefits of our industry cannot be ignored. From roots of a corn stalk, to roots of an Aspen, both organisms are grown and harvested as a commodity that we could not go without.  

On August 16^th, 2016, I had the honor of meeting with ten Michigan FFA state officers from across lower Michigan to assist in guiding them on an active logging site tour. The Michigan FFA Association focuses on developing student’s leadership skills, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Bill Brand, owner of Northland Harvesting, was gracious enough to let us tour his job. We were able to observe hot saw cutting and the loading of a log truck. 

To help landowners better utilize forest management practices for improving wildlife habitat, Kretz Lumber Co., Inc. presented its 14th annual Fall Forestry Festival in early September, hosting over 250 landowners on the 29 acre Ray Kretz Industrial Forest in Antigo. The biennial event provides attendees from across the state an opportunity to unite, learn and share best practices for forest sustainability and conservancy. Sustainable forest management happens when educated landowners have the tools, resources and knowledge needed to effectively manage their land. Our goal, this year, was to teach landowners correct forest management practices in order to assist them in meeting their own personal wildlife goals while also preserving the legacy of their woodlands. 

Rather than start the day with a keynote, this year’s festival featured an expert panel discussion on the topic of forest management for wildlife habitat. Panel members included Scott Walter from the Ruffed Grouse Society, Janet Brehm from the Department of Natural Resources, Ron Eckstein, a retired wildlife biologist from the Wisconsin DNR, and Brian Hoppe with Reed and Hoppe’s Wildlife Food Plots. Panelists took audience questions with topics ranging from invasive species and how to start a forest management plan, to what, if anything, can be done to divert destructive badgers. 

Hundreds of landowners will come together Saturday, Sept. 10 in Antigo’s Ray Kretz Industrial Forest to educate themselves on proper forest management and celebrate stewardship across Wisconsin and Michigan forests. It is all part of the 14th annual Fall Forestry Festival hosted and sponsored by Kretz Lumber Company. 

The festival provides attendees from across the state an opportunity to unite, learn and share best practices for forest sustainability and conservancy. Festival organizers say sustainable forest management happens when educated landowners have the tools, resources and knowledge needed to effectively manage their land. This year’s festival will focus on forest management practices for improving wildlife habitat and will feature an expert discussion on the topic. Panel members will include representatives from the Ruff Grouse Society, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Reed and Hoppe’s Wildlife Food Plots.

ANTIGO - When the Kretz family started the Kretz Lumber Company here in Antigo in 1929, they built part of the original saw mill with hemlock that grew near the property.  Now, a piece of hemlock far older than that serves as a reminder of the company's rich history.

On the south side of the property outside the so-called Cabin stands an eight-foot-tall hemlock log.  A ginseng farmer in Bryant dug it up while plowing a field and thought it looked old.

Read the entire story from WJFW here

ANTIGO, WI – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin today toured Kretz Lumber in Antigo to highlight Wisconsin’s timber economy. Senator Baldwin was joined by Kretz Lumber leadership and members of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association for the tour.

“Our timber economy in northern and central Wisconsin is facing a number of challenges that need to be addressed,” said Senator Baldwin. “Today’s tour shows the importance of building on the progress we’ve made by continuing to work with industry stakeholders in Wisconsin and the U.S. Forest Service. By working together, we can help create a more stable supply of timber from our federal lands, while sustainably managing our resources.”

Read the full announcement here

Submit your best Wisconsin summer photo!

Get outside and share with us your best summer scenery photo. Enter our contest by uploading your favorite photo to our Facebook page. We’ll compile all entries into an album and fans will then vote on their favorite. The image with the most likes at the end of the voting period will receive a $25 Mills Fleet Farm gift card!

To enter our summer Facebook photo contest:

1. Like Kretz Lumber Company's Facebook page.
   
   
2. Post your submission to our page by 11:59 pm CST on August 10, 2016.
   Only one photo/submission per person. All photos submitted must be your personal images and cannot be purchased or copyrighted. Image must have been taken in Wisconsin.
   
   
3. All submissions will be added to a Facebook photo album on August 11, 2016. Kretz Lumber Facebook fans can then vote by liking their favorite image through August 21, 2016. The picture with the most likes as of 11:59 pm CST on August 21, 2016 will win one $25 Fleet Farm gift card.
   
   
4. Enjoy the great outdoors and good luck!

Written by: Jim Kostrzewa, Kretz Lumber Co. Forester

After cruising timber with a client in Shawano County, the landowner took Kretz Lumber Co. foresters Al Koeppel and Jim Kostrzewa to a high clearing on his property to show them this unusual sugar maple tree. Could this be an Indian marker tree? (It must be noted that this tree may have been formed due to an accident of nature such as another tree falling across a young sapling and pinning the trunk to the ground for some years resulting in the bent shape.)

Marker trees were used by Native Americans to assist them in their survival in what was regarded as “the wilderness” by Europeans when they started their settlement of this continent. Traveling through this wilderness required good navigational skills and to assist them, Native Americans used marker trees as signposts to help find a river crossing, campsite, trail or other important features. (Coincidentally there is a river within a ½ mile of this site and this clearing on a prominent high point would have made a great campsite. As well as being a good vantage point there is little to impede even the slightest breeze. This would have been much welcomed by the occupants to keep the bugs at bay in the heat of the summer!)  The landowner reported it is said that Native Americans regularly travelled through this area and it is thought that by looking along the bent stem of the marker tree they were guided in the intended direction. 

Q: I'm looking to attract more wildlife so am considering the first tree harvest on my land. What is the best time of year to start the project and is there anything I should do to prepare?