John Rajala Email and Phone Number

John Rajala is Owner & CEO of Rajala Companies, a vertically integrated forest products company with a long history in northern Minnesota.Rajala Companies owns and manages forests concentrated in Itasca County. It specializes in the sustainable harvest, regeneration, and growth of long-lived species such as White Pine, Oak, Northern Hardwoods, and Lowland Hardwoods. These long-lived species are of high value for multiple purposes: aesthetics (visual beauty), solid wood products, ecology, carbon storage, wildlife, and recreation. The slow growing species of northern Minnesota are highly sought after for use in custom millwork, plank flooring, wall & ceiling paneling, stair systems, timbers (for posts, beams, and rafters), exterior siding, trim, fascia, and soffit. Rajala Companies, through Minnesota Timber & Millwork (mntimber.com), focuses on producing building materials of exceptional quality from the entire tree, not just the traditional "clear wood" part of the tree. Trees have character, and we celebrate the full character of each species, offering homeowners a wide variety of colors and knot structure.At Rajala Companies, we begin with the end in mind. To produce this wide array of character and high quality solid wood products, we begin with carefully planned harvests which result in abundant and diverse natural regeneration of new trees. These natural new trees are meticulously groomed early on in non-commercial (non-revenue producing) silvicultural treatments such as thinning, pruning, and bud capping. They are then commercially thinned in a series of intermediate harvests. Some species groups are maintained in a perpetual state of "all age management". Other species groups require natural or man-made disturbance of some significance (such as wind-throw or heavy harvesting of mature trees) to create the conditions in which these species can regenerate. The end result is a mosaic of natural, high quality forests.