Ilsa Minor | Daily Press Guests of the 2022 Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association Spring Celebration chat with vendors in the packed exhibitors hall at the Island Resort and Casino in Harris Wednesday. In addition to the vendors, more than 400 people came to see the latest and greatest of the timber products industry and listen to speakers.

HARRIS — Hundreds of logging, trucking, and forestry professionals were at the Island Resort and Casino Wednesday for the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association Spring Celebration. The annual event served as a chance for those in the forest products industry to shake off the cold of winter, gather together and learn something new.

“It’s a record-setting turnout. The weather probably helped that,” said Laurie Schienebeck, event coordinator for the GLTPA.

Over 50 vendors from across Wisconsin and Michigan set up booths at the event, with a spattering of heavy equipment also on display outside the Island Resort and Casino’s convention center.

“I have new exhibitors that want to come to the next show, so that’s always a good sign. It’s a success as far as the exhibitors go,” said Schienebeck, who described the early hours of the event as a “stampede” at the registration table when more than 400 attendees flooded into the convention center.

Part of the attraction of the Spring Celebration is the ability of attendees to attend educational sessions that are necessary to remain certified through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. This year, the program offered a newly-required core education class on endangered species.

The words “endangered species” took on other meanings during other presentations at the event. One speaker, American Loggers Council Executive Director Scott Dane, presented the idea that loggers themselves were an endangered species.

“I’d like to invite you to meet the challenge, so you don’t have to tell your children and your children’s what it was once like to work in the woods. So that you’re not the last generation to work in the woods. So that … the American logger and trucker does not become extinct,” he said.

Another speaker, Andrew Halonen of Mayflower Consulting, gave a presentation titled “Fossil Fuel Trucks: An Endangered Species?” but was quick to note he didn’t name the presentation on the future of trucking himself.

“It’s not going to be relevant to everybody,” he said of the use of electric trucks while explaining why for many traditional diesel trucks are a more practical option compared to currently available electric vehicles.

Also during the celebration, the GLTPA gave out its annual merit awards, which recognize individuals who have made an impact on the forest products industry. Award recipients included the late forester Don Peterson, Michigan State Police Motor Carrier Officer Darrin Hart, and husband and wife Roger and Carol Pluedeman of Pluedeman Logging in Eagle River, Wis.