Why We Make Notebooks on the Shore of Lake Michigan

Beech Tree Paper started in Grand Haven, Michigan — close enough to Lake Michigan that you can take a walk down the boardwalk on your lunch break. That's not just a nice detail for an "About" page. It's the reason we make notebooks the way we do, and use sustainable materials. 

A lake that asks something of you

If you've spent any real time near Lake Michigan, you understand the particular kind of attention it asks for. The way the water changes color with the light. The dune grass that holds the shoreline together. The fact that something this big can still feel fragile when you see what plastic and runoff do to a beach after a storm.

That's the starting point for everything we make. A notebook is a small, ordinary object. But the materials it's made from aren't neutral — they come from somewhere, and they go somewhere after. We wanted ours to come from recycled materials and FSC-certified paper, and to be made close enough to home that we can stand behind every part of the process.

Made on the shore, with materials that help protect places like it

It would be easy to lean on "eco-friendly" as a slogan and leave it there. We'd rather be specific: our notebooks are made on the shore of Lake Michigan, using materials that help protect places like it. Recycled paper means fewer trees cut for a product that gets used once and shelved. FSC certification means the wood fiber that is used comes from forests managed responsibly. None of this is dramatic. It's just the standard we hold the materials to before they become something someone writes in.

Why Michigan-made matters to us

Manufacturing in Grand Haven isn't just about geography. It means:

• Shorter supply chains — less shipping distance, less environmental cost in getting a finished notebook to your door.
• Direct accountability — when something needs to be fixed or improved, it happens here, not through layers of overseas vendors.
• A real connection to the customers we serve most — nature centers, land conservancies, and conservation groups across Michigan and Wisconsin who are doing the actual work of protecting places like the one we make notebooks beside.

Who this resonates with

We've found that this story means the most to the organizations already doing conservation and environmental education work — the nature centers running field programs, the land conservancies protecting shoreline and wetlands, the schools teaching the next generation to pay attention to places like this one. If that's you, we'd guess you already understand why the materials matter as much as the mission.

Want to know more about how we make our notebooks? Read more about Beech Tree Paper notebook process→