Today Ted speaks with Steve Marks of Marks Lumber, a full-service provider of Made-In-Montana, Grown-in-Montana wood products. The family-owned operation was started over 75 years ago with the Marks family ranching and milling rough lumber as an extra source of income to support their cattle business.
It was in the late 1980s when Steve and his wife Laura constructed a new sawmill, heralding the latest chapter of Marks Lumber as a full-time production mill. In the following decades, the Marks continued to introduce innovative additions as they scaled the company.
These include the addition of a planer mill to provide many additional specialty products in 1998, a biofuel powered dry-kiln to improve product quality in 2005, and a full timber frame, 4400 sq foot office and showroom in 2008.
Listen in as Steve discusses how Marks Lumber continues to thrive as a timber products business while staying committed to improved forest health. He attributes a great deal of his success, especially as the business entered the 2010s and beyond, to his willingness to surround himself with young, talented people.
Steve also addresses some common concerns surrounding the logging industry, particularly when it comes to how prices will continue to be affected in today’s struggling economy. He and Ted also chime in on the hotly-debated topic of harvesting timber from old-growth forests.
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