Len Schmidt was the mastermind behind the green certified wood's long and lengthy journey through Vermont's local timber and woodworking infrastructure to Middlebury's Ross Commons. Owner of Belgian Woodworking and part time employee for Vermont Family Forests, Schmidt served as the "project manager" for the Ross Commons project. It was his responsibility to route the wood through the correct middlemen or as Schmidt put it, the "local, value-added" companies, mills, kilns, and woodworkers, to achieve the end product desired by the College. The decisions that Schmidt makes in terms of where to send the wood are driven by Vermont Family Forests's vision of a local and sustainable... 
Vermont Family Forest employee and owner of Belgian Woodworking, Len Schmidt at his Starksboro shop.
...product. As Schmidt says, "Vermont Family Forests is about local value adding. If we have a choice: up the road or to Pennsylvania, we will go up the road every time."
In addition to the massive effort required to coordinate the project, Schmidt handled one of the more sensitive steps of the project in his own workshop: beech paneling for the Ross Lounge. That the Ross Lounge would have beech paneling was nothing extraordinary, but the project architects had decided to sequence the panels such that panels from the same log would align, allowing observers to essentially see individual trees within the paneling. Because of the sequencing and matching required to maintain the accurate placement of panels from the same log, Schmidt performed the drying and initial trimming of the rough lumber at his own shop, Belgian Woodworking. From there, the logs were carefully stored and worked on in sequence until their eventual installation in the Ross Lounge. 
Beech paneling for the Eleanor Ross Lounge was stored and handled in sequence to preserve the grain uniformity.
Len Schmidt at work trimming beech paneling.
Rough beech paneling awating trimming.
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