Michigan
Cutting it: Shrinking Michigan market favors big, modern sawmills over small operators
Large modernized sawmills dominate market as small operations close
Large modernized sawmills dominate market as small operations close
Onaway— As general manager of a mid-Michigan sawmill for more than 25 years, Todd Smith has seen the state’s industry shrink, battered by foreign competition, inflation and a shortage of skilled workers.
Now there’s a new worry for him and 110 other employees at Devereaux Sawmill in Ionia County: tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in an effort to force manufacturing of all kinds back into the United States.
“A lot of lumber gets exported to China and, even though we don’t export a lot to China, all the lumber that was going there has to go somewhere else,” Smith said. “So when trade into China gets cut back or cut off … it can flood the market. My hope is that the tariffs in the end will be more of a benefit than they are of a hardship right now.”
In the meantime, the levies add to the headwinds for Devereaux and other Michigan sawmills that turn lumber into cabinets, furniture and trim pieces as part of the state’s $26.5 billion forest products industry. According to research from Michigan State University’s Department of Forestry, the number of sawmills in Michigan declined to 237 from 257 between 2018 and 2023, while the number of small operators plunged 43% from 1990 to 2023. Overall, the state’s industry lost more than $211 million in output and 1,100 jobs between 2019 and 2023.
That consolidation has ripple effects for local economies. The report cited the closure of two Besse Forest Products Group mills in the Upper Peninsula last year that resulted in more than 100 layoffs as highlighting the fragility of rural communities dependent on mill infrastructure.
“In one area, there is investment happening in the sawmill, which created a job, and another area where the mill is closed, people lose logging as a particular rule of economics,” said Jagdish Poudel, an assistant professor of forest economics and policy at MSU.
To Smith, it’s a simple but challenging calculus: Get bigger or get gone.
“You have to grow in order to stay profitable, and the smaller places seem to be struggling and getting squeezed out, which is too bad in a way, but that’s kind of the way it is,” he said. “Farming seems to be going that way, and some of big-box stores squeeze out the little hardware (stores), and our industry is quite similar. There’s still some operators who can get it done, but if you’re not growing and getting bigger, then it’s harder to keep the doors open.”
Up north in Cheboygan County, Precision Hardwoods is among the Michigan sawmills getting bigger.
This year, the business, which employs more than 80 people, completed a $20 million expansion that includes a new 45,000-square-foot facility that uses artificial intelligence and other technology to cut lumber in seconds — allowing the company to process up to five times the amount of chopped wood for industrialized crates, boxes and pallets as before.
The project, which included the hiring of 18 more employees, was aided by a $130,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund.
Owner Mike Sturgill said he’s seen small sawmills close, which is why his facility on M-68 just west of Onaway not only processes lumber but handles logging, too. That, he said, makes Precision less dependent on outside forces than some competitors.
“We can have control of our future and control of what we do; we’re not relying on someone else to help us,” Sturgill said. “(Whereas) they’re at the mercy of competing against everybody else for logs and trucking capacity.”
Sturgill spends his days in a control room overseeing the new AI system that quickly measures hardwood and softwoods like maple, oak, beech, birch, aspen and pine logs, decides how to cut them, and also kicks out logs that have metal inside or are too bulky to cut. It can send more than 5,000 logs per day through the machine compared to less than 750 per day with the old industrial sawmill.
“This mill operation was $20 million,” he said. “It’s a lot of investment. You have to be sure you want to do this … you got to be in it for a long time before you can recoup your investment.”
He went ahead with the expansion despite being in a market he says has been oversupplied since 2022, in expectation that the housing market will rebound. He’s optimistic that Trump’s tariffs will help, too.
“The market’s been pretty saturated and kind of slow for the last few years, but you can’t keep adding more people to the country and not use more houses, supplies,” Sturgill said. “I think the tariffs are helping us. The more we have to buy here and build here, it will help the industry in general. It’ll be some tough times to get there, some inflation, but ultimately it’ll be better.”
Like the owner, employees such as Joe Burrows, a maintenance worker who joined Precision Hardwoods in April as part of the expansion, are keenly aware of the shakeout among Michigan mills with 50 or fewer employees.
“I know there’s some small mills around here that have closed over the years,” said Burrows, who helped set up parts of the new mill and paint its floors.
Fluctuations in timber prices and increased operational costs contribute to the closures. Larger sawmills benefit from advanced machinery and automation, which enhance productivity and reduce labor costs. Small mills frequently lack access to such technologies, making it difficult to compete.
Smith, the Devereaux general manager, said other challenges include finding qualified loggers and handling customer orders that have grown more specialized over the past two decades.
“The logging profession seems to be dwindling. Finding good quality loggers that still harvest the way that we do … with a chainsaw, it is becoming kind of a dying profession,” he said. “Finding loggers has become a bit of a concern in our industry in Michigan.”
On the customer side, Smith said, “Orders have become a lot more technical. Twenty years ago, we could sell full loads of one common hard maple. Now it’s like 1,000 feet of this, 2,000 feet of that, sprinkle on a little bit of this … everybody wants just enough,” he said. “The markets are unpredictable (and) nobody has a real positive long-term outlook. It’s not like doom and gloom either, but nobody wants to get too carried away. Everybody’s operating with caution.”
mjohnson@detroitnews.com
@_myeshajohnson
Michigan
Birmingham police say massive pool party should have been shut down sooner
Police in Birmingham, Michigan, say officers should have shut down a massive pool party in a residential neighborhood sooner last weekend.
More than 100 people showed up for a party in the 300 block of Westchester Way on June 13, when city officials say a private residential pool was rented out to a third party, violating zoning regulations.
“While officers shut the party down and issued multiple citations, the department acknowledges the party should have been shut down earlier,” said Birmingham police Chief Scott Grewe in a social media post. “Protecting public safety and preserving the quality of life in Birmingham neighborhoods remain top priorities. Should an event require intervention in the future, there will be police supervision to ensure the orderly and safe dispersal of attendees.
Homeowners on Westchester Way told CBS News Detroit that the street was filled with cars and some intoxicated partygoers.
“Women, I don’t even know if they were wearing anything, thong bikinis on top of vehicles, twerking,” said homeowner Brian Homer.
Birmingham police confirmed the individual who rented the backyard over the weekend was a promoter. Police say the homeowner and the person who rented the pool were among those who received citations.
Residents told CBS News Detroit that the house has been hosting parties for years and that its pool is listed on Swimply for rent.
“This isn’t the first time; this has been ongoing. This is just the first time he got caught,” said a resident who shares a fence with the homeowner who is renting their pool.
During a Birmingham City Commission meeting Monday night, Birmingham Mayor Clinton Baller said that the city had failed in this case.
Homeowners who spoke with CBS News Detroit said they are concerned about their safety, given that the neighborhood is filled with children.
In April, three men were arrested and later charged in connection with a shooting at a short-term rental in the 1400 block of East Lincoln Street. According to police, a party was advertised at the rental home, and three 18-year-old men drove up to the property, where other teens were gathering, when an argument ultimately led to a shooting.
Michigan
Skateboarding legend conquers California, revisits Michigan roots
Meet Michigan’s own Skateboard Hall of Famer Bill Danforth
Grosse Pointe native and legendary skateboarder Bill Danforth talks about how it all began for him and how it continues across the country.
Warren — Skateboarders flew through the air at Macomb County’s Eckstein Skatepark, launching off concrete ramps as spectators looked on from the surrounding rows of vendor tents.
Punk rock music from a band on the Creative Grind Fest stage echoed across the park as veteran skateboarders — and a legend in the sport — stood alongside the youngest, offering help and encouragement. Among them was 4-year-old Nikky Bukobich, who said the first thing he learned on a skateboard was “to fall.”
Bill Danforth, a Grosse Pointe South High School graduate, surveyed the scene. With buzzed silver hair, limited edition Danforth Vans sneakers and a white T-shirt, the 60-year-old skateboarding trailblazer talked with fans and signed boards.
“Young skateboarders are the future of the sport, and will be able to carry it on long after we are not,” Danforth told The Detroit News. “You’re never done with skateboarding. But after we slow down, they got to keep that tradition going.”
Danforth returned to Metro Detroit last weekend as one of the newest inductees into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, making appearances at Royal Oak’s Modern Skate & Surf — which Danforth credits with keeping skateboarding alive in Michigan — and Warren’s Creative Grind Fest. As the skateboarding industry continues to grow, Danforth’s induction offers a look back at the figures who helped shape the sport’s early years.
Grosse Pointe meets California
Danforth was drawn to skateboarding as a Grosse Pointe youth when he realized it allowed him to express his creativity like no other sport did.
“I played organized sports when I was a kid. I played hockey, I played baseball, I played golf,” he said. “Skateboarding was unique, and it had no rules. We created our own groove.”
Danforth started skating wherever he could: “Most of it was at schoolyards or loading docks. This is before we were even building ramps.”
Then, in 1978, Detroit’s Endless Summer Skatepark opened in Roseville and Danforth began competing through the Great Lakes Skateboarding Association. These competitions drew attention to Danforth and other Midwest skaters from some of the largest industry groups on the West Coast, earning Danforth a sponsorship from Madrid Skateboards.
“We started getting recognized by California,” Danforth said. “All of a sudden we were sponsored by California companies — we’re getting free skateboards, we’re getting free wheels and we’re getting free components.”
‘Style is faster, more charged’
Art director and brand manager for Madrid Skateboards, Eagle Barber, said that Danforth stood out from others in the way he skated.
“His style is faster, it’s more charged. He was never an apprehensive, laid-back skater,” Barber said. “He was always going faster and bigger, and he had a very certain air of intimidation about him.”
Michigan professional skateboarder Garold Vallie, a close friend, added that Danforth was known for skating anything and everything.
“He could skate big halfpipes, but he could skate street,” Vallie said. “He could skate anything. He had his own style, and people gravitated towards that.”
Jerry Shirts, a skater and artist selling his spraypainted road signs at the festival, had often been inspired by Danforth’s tricks on the board, he said: “He was a big influence on me when I first started skating. I had seen him in the mags and such, and then realized he was from Michigan, so he was my favorite local skater. I copied all his tricks.”
Danforth was also unique simply for being a Michiganian. Todd Huber, founder and CEO of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, said Danforth emerged from a region rarely associated with professional skateboarding.
“He wasn’t from California, and California kind of got the spotlight. He was from Detroit, no spotlight was on him,” Huber said. “He was cut from a different cloth, and he did things differently.”
Growing up in Michigan forced skaters like Danforth to be resourceful: “We had to fight a lot of issues just to be a skateboarder in Michigan. Nothing was given to us; we earned it out of our own blood, sweat and tears. We were skateboarders without attitudes in the Midwest. California was a bunch of attitudes with skateboards.”
‘The American Nomad’
The same determination that helped Danforth break into the sport also took him far beyond Michigan. Danforth flew, drove and hitchhiked across the world, skating any terrain he could find and earning him the nickname “The American Nomad.”
His journeys included a trip to Tahiti in the 1980s. Intended as a skateboarding clinic and demonstration tour, the trip turned into what Danforth called an unexpected adventure when political unrest erupted on the island. Danforth evacuated before continuing his travels through New Zealand and Australia.
Stories like these helped make him one of skateboarding’s most recognizable figures during the 1980s.
“He had the number one-selling board in the United Kingdom. He had one of the number one-selling boards in America,” said George Leichtweis, founder of Royal Oak’s Modern Skate & Surf. “And he would go anywhere with anybody in skating, and that’s a level of respect to the core of skateboarding.”
Memorabilia, renewed demand
Today, one of Danforth’s signature boards is part of the Smithsonian’s collection, alongside a copy of “Street Survival,” an instructional VHS video starring Danforth that helped teach a generation of skateboarders.
“He was definitely a really influential skater of the ’80s,” said Jane Rogers, a curator with the Smithsonian. “His board had a lot of cool elements — the graphic and the way the board was shaped. The circle of skulls definitely represents that time.”
Madrid Skateboards recently reissued several of his signature boards as part of a limited-edition collection. Only 200 of each design were produced, and the company said Danforth’s boards were the strongest sellers in its Gold Reissue Series.
Danforth has his own board company, American Nomad, where boards cost upwards of $95. Reissues or originals of Danforth’s signature boards can sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, according to industry experts.
Such demand was visible during Creative Grind Fest. There, the Modern Skate & Surf tent reported strong interest in Danforth’s Hall of Fame commemorative deck, selling for $119, and his Madrid Misfit reissue boards, priced at $84.
“A big percentage of people are buying these things for the collectability aspect of it,” Barber said.
For many collectors, the boards represent more than a piece of equipment, skateboarding industry expert Iain Borden said: “To some extent, people are buying back the youth that they had.
“A lot of people in their 40s, 50s, 60s who can’t skate anymore, they’ve got injuries, they’re too heavy, they’re out of practice, but they still have this relationship to skateboarding that’s been a central part of their life. Board collecting is a way of keeping up that relationship.”
‘People can relate to Bill’
Danforth’s influence isn’t measured solely by the value of his memorabilia. Those who know him often point to his impact off the board as his most lasting contribution.
Danforth has spent decades mentoring younger skaters and supporting Native American skateboarding programs and Michigan skateparks, saying it is important to “share our knowledge with everybody”.
“People love Bill because people can relate to Bill,” said Creative Grind Fest organizer Bridget Harrington Renteria. “He’s great with kids, and he’ll talk to anybody. He’s got time for everybody.”
Among those eager to meet Danforth was 9-year-old Junior Wilie, whose admiration for the skateboarding pioneer was evident. With a photo of Danforth hanging on his bedroom wall, Wilie was excited to get his skateboard signed by him and other Michigan professionals. Wilie toted his skateboard around the park, darting in and out of vendor tents with his parents to find the perfect items.
Wilie wasn’t the only one eager to attend. Miguel Lynn rode his skateboard down into the concrete bowl before accelerating back up and over the rim. Lynn, who has been skateboarding for more than 20 years, said he was excited to learn Danforth would be attending the festival.
“He’s awesome. I look up to that guy,” Lynn said. “He’s been skating for so long, being that old, being able to skate, it’s amazing.”
Vallie was among the skateboarders mentored by Danforth. What began with drawing pictures of Danforth in class as a child eventually led to years of skateboarding and traveling alongside him.
“I think the term legend gets thrown around too much,” Vallie said. “But I do think he embodies every part of what that word encompasses — not only from his skateboarding accomplishments, but bringing skateboarding back to Michigan and helping kids.”
atisch@detroitnews.com
Michigan
Detroit Bar Misses James Beard Award, Leaving MI Without Any Winners
Chartreuse Kitchen and Cocktails is best known for its farm-to-table American cuisine. It has earned numerous accolades, including Yelp’s No. 1 Detroit restaurant in 2017 and 2018.
Freya, known for its prix fixe tasting menus typically served with wine, has also earned high praise, including a spot in the New York Times’ most exciting restaurants list.
The 20 chefs will headline events in their hometowns as part of the foundation’s Taste America culinary tour, which begins Sept. 16 in New Orleans and continues in cities across the country through March 2027.
The foundation said the chefs were selected not only for culinary talent but also for their work beyond the kitchen, including efforts such as supporting sustainable agriculture, investing in restaurant teams, elevating quality ingredients and advocating for a stronger food system.
Chefs in Houston, New York, Detroit, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix, Los Angeles and New Orleans are among the 20 to watch.
-
Oregon8 seconds agoOregon man sentenced to 77 months in prison after pleading guilty to attempted kidnapping
-
Pennsylvania3 minutes agoPennsylvania lawmakers push for data center regulations as development accelerates
-
Rhode Island8 minutes agoRhode Island Pride marks 50th year as early marcher recalls Providence’s first parade
-
South-Carolina15 minutes agoSouth Carolina family raises awareness of rare Batten disease
-
South Dakota18 minutes agoSouth Dakota man whose life sentence was commuted by Noem now implicated in his niece’s death
-
Tennessee30 minutes ago8 Biggest Winners, 4 Losers from Tennessee Titans’ Minicamp
-
Texas33 minutes agoSweep in the heart of Texas: Twins beat Rangers again
-
Utah38 minutes agoRock Canyon fire doubles in size overnight near Arizona-Utah border