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MSU alumnus advises forestry students to be open-minded about careers in the dynamic lumber industry

Jeana-Dee Allen
Russ White, Mike Mordell

Michigan State University alumnus Mike Mordell is executive vice president for international operations for Universal Forest Products International, a Universal Forest Products company.  He says the lumber industry features a dynamic supply chain and that the business operates a lot like the stock market.

“We might not be as sexy as dot-coms or Silicon Valley, but we’re integral to how the world and the economy operates.

“Prices change. Most people, when they think about forest products, don’t realize that the products have to go to market,” says Mordell. “As a forestry student, what I knew a lot about was how to cut a tree, what happens to trees in a sawmill, and how to replant trees.  But I didn’t have a good base of what happened once the tree left the saw mill.

“Prices of forest products like two by fours can change 20 percent in a day. They can go up; they can go down. It’s affected by world events, fires, supply chain interruptions, currency – a lot of different mitigating situations that cause the prices to fluctuate sometimes dramatically.”

Mordell says most forestry students get into the field because they love the outdoors. But when he left Texas A & M with his master’s degree, he couldn’t find work in the woods. He then ended up getting a job as a lumber broker without knowing much about what someone in that position does.

He adds that “forests are renewable, period. There isn’t anything more sustainable than a forest.  You’re not mining timber. When you take oil out of the ground, it’s not replaced. Trees grow back, always. And with good management, you have a sustained-use building material. A lot of people think cutting trees is a bad thing; it is not. Our challenge is to make sure we do the right thing in managing our forests.”

And forests play a key role in mitigating climate change.

“They’re carbon traps. So as they grow, they trap carbon. They’re important for keeping a lot of carbon sequestered.”

Mordell advised the MSU forestry students he spoke with at his alma mater to be financially astute, hone public speaking skills, and be adaptable.

“You never know when your life or career will take a fork in the road, and you have to be open-minded. I fought being in the broker side of the business; I wanted to be outside. I found that I was pretty good at it, and, after a few years, my income got to a point that it was better than it ever would have been if I was cruising timber or being in the woods. And I stayed.”

“I’ve never been removed from my forestry. I’ve been to over a thousand sawmills across the world. It’s been fascinating and a great career. And if I had kept a closed mind on that, I would have never seen it.”

Greening of the Great Lakes airs inside MSU Today Sunday afternoons at 4:00 on AM 870 and 94.5 FM.

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