Introductions Are in Order
Greetings, and welcome to our new website. My name is Mark, my wife's name is Suzanne, and we love walking in the woods. We also have a Great Pyrenees named Niko, who loves it more than we do. We are fortunate in this regard, as we live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (hereafter referred to as the UP.) For those of you unfamiliar, the UP is the northernmost part of Michigan, and is largely forest, or "the woods," as we like to call it. The woods make up 80+% of the land in the UP, and with a little over 16,000 square miles of land, and a population of just over 311,000, you arrive at a population density of 19 people per square mile on average, and....well, you get the picture. The woods are very much a part of the culture of the UP.
A walk in the woods is a very special and profound experience, particularly in the summer in the UP. You see, the UP has a very unique climate, due to its proximity to Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. Lake Superior largely controls the climate of the UP. Its mass of water makes winters a tad warmer and snowier than adjacent areas, and summers a bit cooler. Winters however, are long, typically lasting from late November well into April. As a result, the woods have to try to make up for this short growing season with rapid and prolific growth, and it happens with a vengeance. The numbers and variety of plants are astounding. A walk in the woods in early summer fully engages the senses, leaving little room for anything else. This is the beauty of a walk in the woods. It is one of the most relaxing things I know.
We live along a county road about 6 miles from one of the UP's larger (though very small by most people's standards) cities. Behind our house is endless woods. We were fortunate to be able to purchase a sizable piece of acreage behind our home several years ago, which includes approximately 20 acres of Northern White Cedar. This cedar stand, as it is referred to, is the genesis for this website and Cedar Naturals, our new business. 20 acres of cedar can either be considered a large amount of cedar, or a small amount, depending on your perspective.
Cedar is valuable for a variety of reasons. The wood is much sought after, due to it's characteristics of rot and insect resistance. It lasts a lifetime and then some when used for lumber. Cedar stands also provide a unique and valuable habitat for birds and animals. White tailed deer, which likely outnumber humans in the UP, depend on cedar to survive our long winters.
So back to perspective. Traditionally, deriving value from a stand of cedar involves logging for lumber. This is where 20 acres becomes small in perspective. Additionally, you're left with little, from trees to animal habitat. From any other perspective, 20 acres of cedar stand is a large area. I was, in fact, lost while wandering in it several days ago, and were it not for the compass on my phone, would likely still be wandering in circles.
So what to do with this wonderful resource, that would be fun, sustainable, and maybe pay the taxes, and perhaps fund a forest management plan? Internet research led us to the value of cedar essential oil. Most appealing about the idea behind this is the ability to extract something from the cedar without actually removing the cedar trees. And so the journey began. While it already involves words like distillation, phase separation, wild harvesting, sustainable, quality control, and marketing, it still revolves around a walk in the woods.
