Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/285855
w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m A p r i l 2 0 14 • I nsIgh t | 15 F l o r e n c e c o u n t y I s t h e northernmost county in the new north. We border the upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's our trade region, I guess you would say. A lot of folks commute across the river to work at some of the bigger businesses that are located 15 miles away in Iron Mountain. We have a growing forest products industry. Florence county has five sawmills now. We've added a couple over the last few years and most have been in a growth phase. e wood products markets are great right now, so our sawmills are producing lumber out of every log they can get their hands on. sometimes we struggle with log supply, but we have a number of projects that we're working on in our region to improve the amount of wood they're harvesting from the chequamegon-nicolet national Forest. We received a WeDc grant for a stewardship contracting initiative, and that's in about eight counties that are spread through two regional economic groups. By doing a stewardship agreement and then following that up with specific stewardship projects, you're able to harvest the timber, and then the money that you produce from that timber sale gets spent on local projects with local contractors. so rather than having Wendy Gehlhoff on the economy 'up north' U P F R O N T face time P H O T O G R A P H B Y B O B c A s H m A N / I m A G E s T U D I O s , F O R I N s I G H T Wendy Gehlhoff, director of the Florence County Economic Development Commission, moved to the New North's northernmost county in 2002 aer working for Illinois-based Buckman Laboratories. Gehlhoff spoke with Insight associate editor Nikki Kallio about the draw of Florence's slower pace, its vast outdoor recreation possibilities, and the county's potential for growth in the forest products industry. [continued ] »