Superior Trees, LLC

I purchased 40 acres of family owned former farm land in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in 2017.  Since then I've formed an LLC to manage the property working with the local conservation district, USDA Environmental Quality Incentive Program and private sector grants to manage the property.  We completed a forest management plan in 2018 and conducted the property's first thinning harvest in 2019. We used the proceeds from the thinning harvest to buy an adjacent additional 40 acres in 2020.  We received additional grants to extend the forest management plan to the second parcel and have been working with USDA under the Conservation Stewardship Program to improve habitat in the existing forest.  Since 2017, using google maps and GPS and combining hand planting and USDA contractors we've planted over 5000 trees, including introducing oak and black walnut in order to introduce more mast species to create food for deer and other wildlife.

Climate change, treaty rights, water quality, preservation and reforestation.  We've taken the Trillion Tree challenge head on and are working to reforest an initial 80 acres with the hope of adding nearby agricultural property as it becomes available.  Our property backs to the Rock River Wilderness Area which is part of the Hiawatha National Forest.  If we can extend the forest and increase wildlife habitat while showing it can be done profitably over a long period of time we can duplicate this work in other watersheds in the Upper Peninsula. 

One family can make a difference.  We're reforesting our personal family property to ensure cleaner water and air for everyone.  Increased habitat will hopefully lead to an increase in wildlife in the Rock River Wilderness area where tribal members can hunt and fish.  

We plan to build a polebarn on the property and apply for Rural Energy Assistance Program grants to install solar and wind power on the building, which is only in use a few weeks out of the year.  

Our reforestation efforts use topographical data, USDA provided soils data, google map satellite data and our traditional ecological knowledge to plant our trees in a manner that reduces runoff and increases the size of our wetland areas.  In 2017, we traded firewood from naturally downed trees with extended family who own heavy equipment and created a 3/4 acre pond and built wood duck boxes from reclaimed lumber from a Home Depot where I work a second job.  A nesting pair was observed in the pond during this spring's planting of an additional 425 trees.

Working with USDA to extend the forest as part of a "tree farm" we have access to grants to fund some of our work.  I recently signed a contract with the Conservation Stewardship Program and spent part of this years planting time constructing snowshoe hare habitats with slash downed from the thinning harvest two years ago.

By extending the forest adjacent to a wilderness area we hope to see additional wildlife.  My family has hunted and fished in these woods since the early 1900s.  We are members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and have reserved treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather.  

In the areas immediately adjacent to roads, buildings and access points we are planting food forests, sugar maple, black cherry and heritage apples.  Food sovereignty as a part of reforestation ensures tribal communities access to healthy foods.

While we are technically a small business our motivation is building a green model for sustainable business.  We are using our family land to improve air and water quality, extend wildlife habitat and create green energy in order to preserve tribal treaty rights and reinforce tribal sovereignty.  Racial equity, social and environmental justice, and tribal sovereignty start with individual responsibility to ones community both tribal and local.  The way to leave a sustainable future for my children is planting one tree at a time.

Trees take time to grow.  The trees we plant today may not be harvested in my lifetime.  But the forest will need to be selectively managed in order for it to continue to grow.  If we can incorporate solar and wind into our new construction we believe we can be profitable in 10-15 years.  But we believe the model can be replicated in other watersheds, taking agricultural lands on or near rivers and reforesting, creating wetlands, to reduce nutrient runoffs and reduce the impact of climate change.  

Planting food forests and incorporating green energy into the project also ensures long term sustainability efforts and tribal food sovereignty.

It combines technology, traditional government agriculture financing and personal labor to harness best practices from preservation, wilderness, forestry/reforestation, agriculture, green energy and traditional ecological knowledge to create a hopefully replicable long term sustainable business model.

We certainly use satellite photos and imagery to plan our tree species planting.  We've used tractors and heavy equipment for planting but we've also used an axe, a dibble bar, a garden wagon and sweat equity to do most of the work.  The internet has been an invaluable tool...communicating with the local conservation district, watching videos from the Icelandic government forestry on how to mark trees for a sustainable thinning harvest, researching traditional food forests and heritage species for planting apples and cherries.  f

https://www.ecologyandsociety....

While we've planted the former pastures mainly with red and white pine, which could create risk from the uniformity of the species, in order to create more of the forest/food forest and increase diversity we've blended the edges of the fields with apple, cherry, birch, sugar maple, black walnut and red oak.  

Change takes time and commitment.  Change requires experimentation in order to show success through innovation.  Take traditional platforms, combine, build and innovate.

Six.  My immediate family and extended family benefit.  But downstream water impacts many more.

We're growing trees to take carbon out of the atmosphere, improve water quality and increase wildlife habitat.  If we can incorporate green energy the impact would certainly be greater but it's difficult to gauge impact when the goal is carbon sequestration on a small farm/forest.

The number of trees that survive from year to year.  Their growth.  The increase in biodiversity of both trees and animals observed.  Eventually the number of kilowatts generated from solar and wind.

Financial.  I live and work in DC.  The cost of lumber and the cost of finance generally has made building a pole barn at this point out of reach.  We have $6000 saved so far and we hope to get a few more grants for operations.  The Conservation Stewardship Program will help fund ongoing tree plantings for the next few years.  There is no residence on the property and we currently stay in an old camper trailer while on the property.  We are restoring the drinking water well and hope to have that operational this summer.  Most of the work is done on annual leave from my two days jobs.  Time, distance, fuel, inflation and economic conditions all limit progress.  

Resilience.  It's our traditional property.  I return there two to three times a year regardless for treaty hunting, gathering and fishing.  I'm hopeful that once we have a pole barn and income from green energy production that we will be able to repeat the process of converting additional agricultural lands to this type for forestry/agricultural/energy model on additional properties in the future.

Myself and my wife.

We've seen 70% of the trees we've planted so far survive and have infilled where they haven't with new seedlings.  We're confident that this will work over time.

The same way we make our marriage work, communication, partnership and patience.  

My wife supports my work on this and my other side projects.  I serve on the Montgomery County, MD Racial Equity and Social Justice Advisory Committee, the American Bar Association Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice and the Native American Bar Association of Washington DC.  I served for four years as an appellate judge for my tribe.  

With the tree farm she helps with the paperwork and grants and I plant the trees.  We try and share the creative vision for the food forest.