Our Team

John Monks, founder of Vermont Tree Goods is smiling with salt-and-pepper hair and a beard, wearing a blue shirt, standing on top of a mountain at Acadia National Park

John Monks

Founder

John Monks has spent his life working with wood in many different capacities. He has always had a strong affinity for trees and spent many of his early years admiring them from high in their branches. As a 20-year-old he built his first house and knew his calling was to work with wood.

After many years as a builder in Vermont, John moved to California to help with a family construction project. There he quickly gained experience and a reputation for his use of alternative and sustainable building materials including straw bales and reclaimed wood. At this time he began to work with large live edge slabs, incorporated them into his houses as countertops, and also built furniture. This is when he found his roots and the inspiration to create natural furniture.

In 2008 John returned to Vermont with his wife and son and a vision as to how furniture should be made and how the process impacts our environment. He began to collect unwanted large diameter logs to produce lumber for his furniture. He experimented with chainsaws (not highly recommended) to learn how to mill the largest of these trees. After much trial and many splinters, he designed the unique sawmill that allows Vermont Tree Goods to transform the largest of trees at the end of their growing years into exquisite furniture. Their lives can now be extended for many generations to come.

He is happiest when he is at his sawmill discovering the amazing gifts that Vermont’s heirloom trees hold. As a customer in the showroom said recently, “he sure knows how to talk to the trees”. Yes, that he does.

Carter Monks with brown hair, wearing a blue cap with red and white text, a green hoodie, and gray pants, sitting on a VTG wooden bench outside Harvard Divinity School.

Carter Monks

Marketing Director

The son of founder John Monks, Carter has grown up alongside Vermont Tree Goods for the last 16 years. Having spent his high-school summers as part of the milling-team, even serving briefly as lead sawyer, Carter became well aquatinted with the inner workings of VTG and its environmental mission. Inspired by the ideals and work of VTG, he took on a major in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College where he is entering his last semester. Carter is now working as the marketing director, helping to guide VTG into its next chapter.

Lead artisan in vtg workshop sanding or finishing a wooden table using a handheld power tool, with workbenches and lighting fixtures in the background.

Wells Peterson

Lead Artisan

Wells is the lead woodworker at Vermont Tree Goods, specializing in live-edge creations from salvaged Vermont hardwood. He focuses on highlighting each slab’s natural grain, character, and live-edge, overseeing every step of the creation process. His ability to understand each slab as a unique piece, with its own set of challenges and needs for creating a final product allows him to masterfully craft pieces that fit each customers design needs. His work is beautiful, meticulous, intentional, and worthy of your next residential or commercial project.

Dave Schnitzel, the lead operations worker at vtg with glasses and a moustache leaning against a chain-link fence at a tennis court, smiling and wearing a dark striped polo shirt.

Dave Schnitzler

Operations

After a career of keeping mail sorting machines running, Dave has now settled into being the quiet force behind the operations at our Connecticut facility. Whether running a forklift to stand up the largest of slabs, or building racks to support them, he is always approachable and quite willing to share his wisdom.