There are trees sitting in woodlots right now, rotting, and others headed for the chipper, and every one of them is releasing methane and losing the carbon it spent decades collecting. Jennifer Flynn built a workforce program around that problem, and the people she trains learn to run a chainsaw, a portable sawmill, and a GIS mapping tool in the same season.

In this episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, host Jennifer Alger sits down with Jennifer Flynn, the EcoCorps program director at SEEDS EcoCorps in northwestern lower Michigan and a fellow board member at the Urban Wood Network. Jennifer is an eco psychologist by training, and she runs what she calls a green collar career exploration program for anyone 16 and older, with no upper age cap. Her staff have included high schoolers, career changers coming out of desk jobs, and people referred through the state workforce development agency. The program is modeled on the Civilian Conservation Corps of the New Deal era, which both of her grandfathers served in, back when only young men were allowed.

The urban wood work started in 2019, before the Urban Wood Network was even a formal organization, when a city planner brought in speakers and the team was asked to rescue community trees felled for a trail project. That one job turned into a systems change model. Jennifer's organization now convenes agencies across a ten county region to divert organic waste from landfills, while the hands on urban wood recovery stays local to the Traverse City area. You'll hear how the value chain actually works: arborists fell the trees, a portable sawmill operator trains the crew on the mill, and the material goes out to contractors, sign makers, furniture makers, and the National Park Service. In one case her team sold rescued wood to the park service, then came back two or three years later to build the public structures out of the same material they had milled.

The full circle piece is what makes this one worth your time. Crews plant and maintain trees, mill the ones that come down to disease or development, then sweep the sawdust into a composting system that produces soil for food pantry gardens. Jennifer is candid about what her region is missing: the nearest kiln operation is an hour and a half away, the major industry operators will not take a log or two at a time, and she would love to see a former staff member open a sawmill and kiln closer to home. She calls that a five year goal. Her most rewarding urban wood memory is a newly hired naturalist who learned to run a portable sawmill on her first day on the job, milling logs that had come down that same week.

Chapters:

00:00 What a Green Collar Career Actually Means

05:01 The Wood Rescue That Started It All

11:06 Modeled on a Depression Era Conservation Corps

16:29 Rebuilding the Urban Wood Value Chain

19:48 Who Buys Rescued Wood, and Where It Goes

23:29 A First Day on a Portable Sawmill

27:36 The Missing Links, a Local Sawmill and Kiln

The Woodpreneur Podcast brings stories of woodworkers, makers, and entrepreneurs turning their passion for wood into successful businesses - from inspiration to education to actionable advice. Hosted by Steve Larosiliere and Jennifer Alger

For blog posts and updates: woodpreneur.com

See how we helped woodworkers, furniture-makers, millwork and lumber businesses grow to the next level: woodpreneurnetwork.com

Empowering woodpreneurs and building companies to grow and scale: buildergrowth.io

Connect with us at: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sawmillsnearme/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woodpreneurnetwork/ Join Our Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/woodpreneurnetwork Join our newsletter: https://substack.com/@woodpreneurnetwork

You can connect to Jennifer at: https://urbanwoodnetwork.org/ https://ecoseeds.org/

In this episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, host Jennifer Alger sits down with Cathy Cohne, fifth generation at Melrose Lumber Co. in Austin, New York. The company was founded in 1922 by Cathy's great-great-grandfather, and when he passed away early, his wife, a Russian immigrant with no English, stepped in and kept the doors open during the Depression. That grit runs through the whole story. The family later operated Manhattan Lumber Company in the city before New York's Urban Renewal program purchased the location, and a fire in the 1960s forced a move from the Melrose section of the Bronx to where they are today.

Cathy grew up in the business. If she wasn't in school, she was stocking shelves, helping customers, and making sure everything looked right. She went on to earn a business degree with a minor in marketing and later an MBA, always with the family business in the back of her mind. After COVID, she stepped fully into a leadership role alongside her dad, and the two manage the operation together with her mom handling the books.

Melrose Lumber Co. is about 70 percent lumber and the rest hardware, essentially a miniature home center. They carry plywood, dimensional lumber, Douglas fir, pressure treated, cedar, PSLs, LVLs, and a full hardware selection. Cathy walks through the realities of sourcing from major suppliers, fielding quotes by phone and email, and competing with the big box stores on price while offering something they never will: real customer service and a personal touch.

A big chunk of the conversation centers on marketing and staying current. Cathy launched an e-commerce website in October and has been working with a media company on SEO for about a decade. The data from those efforts is already shaping how she runs the physical store. When analytics showed that walking sticks were the number one search keyword, she stuffed the rack full and let foot traffic do the rest. She also talks about the early days of AI-generated quoting, her hesitation to give up control, and how ChatGPT started sending brand new customers through her door during an ice dam season.

The conversation touches on COVID-era challenges, the shift from cedar everything to more economical Douglas fir as budgets tightened, fuel surcharges driving up order minimums, and the balancing act of inventory management when you refuse to run out but also refuse to overstock. Cathy's philosophy is simple: stay organized, stay efficient, and listen to what customers are actually asking for.

Tune in, be inspired, and don't forget to follow the Woodpreneur Podcast. New episodes drop every Thursday morning wherever you consume your podcasts.

00:00 A Russian Immigrant Runs a Lumber Company in the 1930s

05:10 What Melrose Lumber Co. Carries and How They Source It

09:36 Launching the E-Commerce Store and Navigating AI

18:23 Lumber Trends, Cedar to Douglas Fir, and Economic Shifts

22:06 Education, Family, and Choosing the Business

27:55 Tariffs, Fuel Surcharges, and Adapting to Rising Costs

The Woodpreneur Podcast brings stories of woodworkers, makers, and entrepreneurs turning their passion for wood into successful businesses - from inspiration to education to actionable advice. Hosted by Steve Larosiliere and Jennifer Alger

For blog posts and updates: woodpreneur.com

See how we helped woodworkers, furniture-makers, millwork and lumber businesses grow to the next level: woodpreneurnetwork.com

Empowering woodpreneurs and building companies to grow and scale: buildergrowth.io

Connect with us at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sawmillsnearme/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woodpreneurnetwork/

Join Our Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/woodpreneurnetwork

Join our newsletter: https://substack.com/@woodpreneurnetwork

You can connect with Cathy at:

www.melroselumber.com

https://www.instagram.com/melroselumberco/

In this episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, host Jennifer Alger sits down with Chris Bingaman, CEO of Bingaman & Son Lumber. The company traces back to Chris's grandfather, who logged with horses, hauled timber by truck to local sawmills, and eventually started finding new markets when the coal mine prop business dried up. Chris's father joined in, they incorporated in 1968, and today the operation spans five locations with three sawmills, though 80 percent of their lumber still comes from outside mills. It is a processing and distribution business at its core, built on relationships.

Chris has been part of it since he was five years old, riding along in the truck while his dad spent six or seven hours hand-grading and hand-loading lumber at sawmills that did not even own a forklift. Every summer growing up, he worked in the company. He wanted to go to the swimming pool. His dad had other plans. That early training in work ethic and lumber grading set the foundation for everything that followed.

The conversation digs into how the hardwood lumber industry has contracted and what Bingaman & Son Lumber has done to stay relevant. Chris talks about the 2008 recession as a turning point that forced the company to diversify its product offering, become nimble, and develop deep strategic partnerships with customers. More recently, they invested in a computerized grading system that processes 60 to 70 boards per minute, work that previously required three people. The system has been running about five months, and the results have been significant, though it came with more debt than they are comfortable carrying.

Chris also opens up about succession planning. His father went through the painful experience of buying the company back from an estate after Chris's grandfather died suddenly, and that lesson drove decades of intentional estate planning. Chris has four daughters, and when none pursued the business full time, he transitioned the presidency to a long-tenured CFO who had been groomed for the role with the help of an advisory board. Meanwhile, an ESOP launched around 2006 now gives employees 35 percent ownership, with flexibility to go either direction in the future.

The broader industry discussion covers tariffs, export markets (25 to 30 percent of volume), the growing threat of synthetic substitutes for wood, and a proposed tax incentive through the National Hardwood Lumber Association that would give homebuyers a deduction for using hardwoods. Chris also touches on mass timber research for low-grade species, biofuels as an outlet for junk wood, and the connection between healthy markets and healthy forests. His message is clear: without demand for wood, there is no economic reason to manage the resource, and unmanaged forests suffer.

Chapters

00:00 From Horse Logging to Hardwood Processing

08:36 Family Business, Succession, and the ESOP

16:25 Navigating the Hardwood Market Contraction

21:03 Computerized Grading: 60 Boards a Minute

24:01 Tariffs, Exports, and Staying Nimble

28:05 Forest Health, Substitutes, and the Case for Real Wood

32:06 Thermally Modified Wood and the Architect Community

The Woodpreneur Podcast brings stories of woodworkers, makers, and entrepreneurs turning their passion for wood into successful businesses - from inspiration to education to actionable advice. Hosted by Steve Larosiliere and Jennifer Alger

For blog posts and updates: woodpreneur.com

See how we helped woodworkers, furniture-makers, millwork and lumber businesses grow to the next level: woodpreneurnetwork.com

Empowering woodpreneurs and building companies to grow and scale: buildergrowth.io

Connect with us at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sawmillsnearme/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woodpreneurnetwork/

Join Our Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/woodpreneurnetwork

Join our newsletter: https://substack.com/@woodpreneurnetwork

You can connect with Chris at:

https://bingamanlumber.com/

https://www.instagram.com/bingaman.lumber/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-bingaman-391630b/