Lifelong Upper Peninsula resident and Michigan Tech graduate Justin Miller founded Green Timber Consulting Foresters Inc. in 2001 to serve private forestland owners. Since its inception, the company has helped hundreds of landowners, ranging from individuals who own less than 20 acres to industrial landowners and investment organizations with nationwide land holdings.
There are plenty of Huskies helping Green Timber, based in Pelkie, Michigan, meet that mission. Currently, 10 of Green Timber's 13 employees are Tech graduates.
Miller earned his bachelor's degree in forestry in 2000 from the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (CFRES), which was then the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. In addition to receiving the 2007 Outstanding Young Alumnus and 2017 Outstanding Alumnus awards, he set high professional goals, which he continues to meet.
"The education and experiences I acquired at Michigan Tech have provided a base that I have used to build my career," said Miller. He intends for Green Timber to continue providing a place for other CFRES students to do the same.
"Given our close proximity to MTU, we have built a mutually beneficial relationship with CFRES that we deeply value," Miller said. "We enjoy presenting to various classes and participating in the annual CFRES Natural Resources Career Fair."
Miller is also involved in the consulting forestry community on state and national levels, and recently served as president of the Association of Consulting Foresters, a national association for professional consultants.
Meet the Green Timber Huskies
Rexx Janowiak has been a forester at Green Timber for 20 years. He earned his bachelor's degree in forestry from Michigan Tech in 2002.
Brian Nordstrom, who earned his bachelor's degree in forestry at Michigan Tech in 2015, began working at Green Timber right after graduation.
Shane Kleiman has worked for Green Timber since 2017. He earned master's degrees in both forestry and geographic information systems (GIS) at Michigan Tech in 2017. Kleiman also completed his undergraduate work at Tech, earning two bachelor's degrees in 2015: one in applied ecology and environmental science, and the other in mathematics with a statistics concentration. In the summer of 2016, Kleiman worked for the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) as a GIS/remote sensing technician. In this position, he integrated the disciplines of GIS, remote sensing, and statistics to conduct research on environmental problems.
Will Denofre has been employed at Green Timber since 2023. He earned an AAS in Forest Technology at Michigan Tech in 2001.
Anna Pike joined the Green Timber team in spring 2023 upon graduating from Michigan Tech with her bachelor's degree in forestry.
"Everything we do at Green Timber is a team effort and our group is built largely around CFRES alumni."
Nic Blundy interned for Green Timber during the summer of 2022 and was hired full-time in spring 2023 after graduating from Tech with a bachelor's degree in forestry with a minor in business.
Oliver-Hobbes Jensen graduated from Michigan Tech with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics in 2022 and earned a master's degree in forestry in 2023.
Olivia Witting, who grew up in Houghton, earned her bachelor's degree in forestry in April 2024 and joined Green Timber following graduation. Before beginning work at Green Timber, Witting interned at MTRI with Laura Bourgeau-Chavez on a soil moisture mapping project focused on forest inventory.
Michelle Miller earned her bachelor's degree in applied ecology and environmental sciences at Michigan Tech in 2002 and her master's in applied science in education at Tech in 2016. In addition to office management, Miller coordinates Green Timber's environmental outreach efforts. Fun fact: Michelle and Justin Miller met at Tech while pursuing their degrees in CFRES. "We are best friends and business partners," said Justin. "We married upon Michelle's graduation and have since built our family and business together."
Company Transformation on the Horizon
Green Timber continues to grow. The company recently announced plans to merge with Grossman Forestry, with an anticipated closing date of January 1, 2025. Three of the foresters with Grossman are also Michigan Tech forestry program graduates: Todd Miller, who earned his bachelor's degree in 1993; Terry Manty, who earned his bachelor's in 1997 and his master's in 2000; and Andrew Niemi, who earned his bachelor's in 2024 with a minor in plant sciences.
According to a jointly issued press release, Miller and Gerald Grossman, president of Grossman Forestry, signed a memorandum of understanding to combine their two companies via the sale of Grossman Forestry to Green Timber.
"Grossman Forestry has been serving landowners in the Eastern Upper Peninsula and Northern Lower Peninsula since 1991, while Green Timber has been tending to forests of the Western Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin since 2001," the release said. "Together, the two companies will manage over 550,000 acres in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Northern Lower Peninsula. The collective staff of 17 professional foresters has over 200 years of experience in forest management, timber harvest administration, GIS, forest inventory, forest modeling and analysis, and certification auditing."
Miller said Green Timber is excited to join forces with the staff at Grossman Forestry. "The combination of our two teams will bring clients expanded expertise and opportunities through a broader network of land management services while offering efficiencies with offices spread across the Upper Peninsula," he said.
Existing clients at both companies will maintain their current account managers with the added benefit of the expanded capacity and expertise the partner company offers.
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
