TAWAS CITY – This year’s Stewardship Forester is Jenilee Dean of Northeast Michigan Forestry LLC in Tawas City. She was honored in February to recognize her exceptional customer service to family forest landowners.
The Stewardship Forester Award, given at the annual Michigan Association of Consulting Foresters meeting, recognizes the important role of the 155 private sector foresters who serve Michigan’s 400,000 family forest landowners.
Dean studied biology at the University of Michigan and gained forestry experience on the job. She traveled around Michigan and the eastern United States doing surveys of seedling survival and other forest measurements for large government and corporate landowners. After having children, Dean wanted to work closer to home and focused her efforts on small landowners in northeast Michigan. A few years ago, she started her own company, Northeast Michigan Forestry LLC.
Dean has written more than 100 forest management plans over the last 15 years, covering thousands of acres in Alcona, Alpena, and Iosco counties.
“I really enjoy chatting with landowners and hearing about the history of their property and educating them about forestry,” Dean said. “I am beyond blessed to call the forest my office.”
