Michigan: Brock VanOss Named 2023 Stewardship Forester of the Year

Monday, April 10, 2023

Michigan: Brock VanOss Named 2023 Stewardship Forester of the Year

In recognition of his service to woodland owners, work with local schools and training of Michigan Master Loggers, Brock VanOss of VanOss Forestry Services LLC in Crystal Falls has been named 2023 Stewardship Forester. He was given the award in February.

The Stewardship Forester award recognizes the important role of 155 private sector foresters who serve Michigan’s 400,000 family forest landowners. The award is given at the annual meeting of the Michigan Association of Consulting Foresters.

VanOss has written forest management plans for several hundred landowners covering thousands of acres in Michigan and Wisconsin since starting his consulting forestry business in 2001. His clients use their plans to achieve their goals and do projects in the woods such as planting trees or harvesting timber to improve wildlife habitat. Forest management plans provide a fast return on investment when landowners use them to generate income with a timber sale, sell forest carbon credits or lower their property taxes in the Qualified Forest or Commercial Forestprograms.

VanOss obtained the first of his two forestry degrees from Michigan Technological University in 2000. He worked for Minerick Logging in the Upper Peninsula for three years and has operated his own consulting forestry business in Crystal Falls for 20 years. VanOss employs two other foresters and an office manager. He enjoys working with family forest landowners throughout the U.P. and with local schools in his community.

Lending a hand with school forests

Brock VanOss, standing with a plaque in front of a sign, is the Michigan ACF 2023 Stewardship Forester of the Year.

VanOss developed a forest stewardship plan for the 2,037-acre school forest at Forest Park Schools in Crystal Falls in 2017. He is an alumnus of North Dickinson County School in Felch, which has managed a 1,014-acre school forest since 1932. He is working with the Department of Natural Resources and another dozen consulting foresters on a project to plant 150,000 trees at 20 school forests around Michigan. VanOss hired two local high school students and trained them to plant 30,550 tree seedlings, mostly red pine, at these two very large school forests. Both schools are celebrating Arbor Day (the last Friday in April, this year April 28) and becoming Tree Campus K-12 certified with the Arbor Day Foundation.

VanOss has numerous credentials to document his professional forestry skills and help landowners enroll in various forestry programs. He is a member of the Association of Consulting Foresters, Society of American Foresters, Michigan Association of Timbermen, a Michigan Registered Forester, a Technical Service Provider and a Qualified Forester. If you own woods, a consulting forester like VanOss can help you achieve your goals to manage, protect and enjoy your forest.

“Relationships between foresters and landowners are at the heart of successful private forest management,” said Dennis McDougall, with the USDA Forest Service. “By listening to the landowner’s vision for their property, the forester develops a unique management plan designed to achieve that vision. Foresters like VanOss help landowners understand and navigate the unfamiliar world of timber markets and government programs to enable them to make sound decisions about their land.”

Brock VanOss instructs a Women Owning Woodlands class in proper chainsaw techniques.

Efforts help loggers do their work better

VanOss benefited professionally from his three years working for Minerick Logging and continues to help good loggers be even better. He:

Provides chainsaw safety classes for landowners and loggers with Safety and Woods Worker training.
Helps administer the Master Logger Certification programs in both Michigan and Wisconsin.
Conducts field audits in the woods to help loggers improve their safety, productivity and protection of the environment.
Provides classroom training for loggers that is required by forest certification programs such as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Forest Stewardship Council.

VanOss Forestry Services is working with the Sustainable Resources Institute to help the Michigan Association of Timbermen expand its Michigan Master Logger certification program to the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. Although 80% of Michigan’s 10 million people live in southern Michigan, there are currently zero Master Loggers there. All 80 Michigan Master Loggers are in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula, where 80% of Michigan’s 20 million acres of forest are located.

Connecting landowners with master loggers

Forester Brock Van Oss stands in a snowy forest wearing a high visibility vest and a stocking cap.

VanOss does fine work helping his family forest clients, but his exemplary work with Michigan’s loggers and Master Loggers sets him apart from his consulting forester peers to earn the 2023 Stewardship Forester award from the Michigan Forest Stewardship Program. Research by the USDA Forest Service indicates that only 29% of Michigan landowners use a professional forester to administer their timber sales, but 100% of landowners use loggers to harvest their trees, so helping people find excellent Master Loggers is important to take good care of Michigan’s amazing forests.

About the Forest Stewardship Program

The Forest Stewardship Program is funded by the USDA Forest Service and administered in Michigan by the DNR. All partners are equal opportunity providers and employers. For more information, contact Mike Smalligan at SmalliganM@Michigan.gov or 517-449-5666.