Jesse Randall

The Michigan State University’s Forestry Innovation Center (FIC), is a unique outpost where maple trees, paper mills, Christmas trees and global markets are all connected. …The FIC is the program administrator for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which oversees 5 million acres of certified forestland and approximately 5 million tons of procured wood, anchoring Michigan’s $26 billion forest products industry. It also manages 9,000 acres of research forests, offering diverse conditions for experiments in snowpack, soils and wildlife impacts to trees. “We’ve gone from being regionally irrelevant to running the industry in terms of training and certification, while also becoming a hub for global maple research,” said Jesse Randall, the director of the center. …“We’re where industry, science and community come together — from school kids to projects that stretch 300 years into the future,” Randall says. “Everything we do connects back to Michigan and it all starts in our forests and runs through here.”