Snyder tours Gwinn-area businesses

Governor Rick Snyder’s U.P. tour continued Wednesday at two businesses making strides in the Gwinn area.

A firsthand look under the hood of Potlatch Forest Products and Biogenic Reagents offered the governor a glimpse at how the U.P.’s timber industry and cutting edge technology aids the state economy.

“They’re making carbon-based products in a very high-tech, sophisticated system that is going to help revolutionize the use of carbon,” Snyder said.

Following the tours, he made a pit stop at the Grouse Enhanced Management trail to plant a few trees as part of his Do Something Michigan Initiative.

“Do Something Michigan is about asking Michiganders to go help one another,” the governor said. “It’s a wonderful initiative and it’s working well; it was great to finally get up here and do one of the events in the U.P. and it’s wonderful to see so many wildlife groups turning out: M.U.C.C., Ducks Unlimited, many other groups, the Whitetail Association is here. All these people are working together to make Michigan a better place.”

Michigan DNR director Keith Creagh said the upkeep of the habitats along the grouse hunting trails benefits both the hunting and tourism industries.

“That’s really to take those that are coming from out of state and focus them in an area for grouse hunting, and so we’re improving the habitat. We bring tourists in, hunters in to the hunting areas, spend a week in the U.P., going across the U.P., doing great grouse hunting, and then spending their dollars locally,” Creagh said.”

Governor Snyder’s tour continues Thursday at the U.P. State Fair in Escanaba, where he’ll present the U.P. Veteran of the Year award.