CONGRATULATIONS go to Andy Kozlowski, local Michigan investigative journalist at C&G Newspapers, for the recent top honors in not just one, but TWO notable journalism awards from Michigan professional press associations. His breakthrough stories on the threats to a centuries-old tree in Sterling Heights, Michigan, captured the attention and hearts of thousands.
Michigan Press Association 2025 Award Winner
Announced at the April 2026 Awards banquet in East Lansing, his January 2025 series of three stories (edit: revised to include related follow-ups1 ) in the Sterling Sentry titled “Centuries-old tree endangered by new development” received the FIRST PLACE honor from the Michigan Press Association in the 2025 Environmental/Climate Change/Weather News category for a weekly paper.
Society of Professional Journalists Detroit Chapter – Excellence in Journalism Award
Joining in the recognition for Mr. Kozlowski’s work, announced at the May 2026 Excellence in Journalism Annual Awards Banquet, SPJ Detroit awarded the “Centuries-old tree endangered by new development” series of stories the honor of FIRST PLACE in the category of Print Class C: Consumer Watchdog Reporting.
“A tree doesn’t often make headlines, but when it’s a historic tree that dates to our nation’s founding that merits some attention. A well-reported look at the consequences of development.”
– SPJ Detroit Judges Summary Remarks
The series of three stories is listed below:
C&G Newspapers | Sterling Sentry Story #1 by Andy Kozlowski – Jan 22, 2025: Centuries-old tree endangered by new development | (Issuu Downloadable E-Edition)
C&G Newspapers | Sterling Sentry Story #2 by Andy Kozlowski – Feb 19, 2025: Residents protest plan to destroy tree older than United States | ( Issuu Downloadable E-Edition)
C&G Newspapers | Sterling Sentry Story #3 by Andy Kozlowski – May 9, 2025: As city plants trees, residents push to preserve canopy: ‘Landmark” chinquapin still in crosshairs of new development
The surrounding community, this older-than-our-nation, keystone species oak tree and its friends, the local ecosystem and wildlife, appreciate his taking an interest, pursuing facts, context, and balance (even, ahem …going out on a limb) in digging deeper into this local story in Sterling Heights.
Thank you and congrats, Andy! 🌳
- Correction / Clarification June 4, 2026: The original publication of this post indicated the awards went to the initial story; all of the related follow-up stories by Mr. Kozlowski were also included in these awards. This post was updated to reflect this in the appropriate places and add the related links and embedded digital editions. We added SPJ Detroit Judges’ remarks that weren’t available at the time of the initial post. ↩︎
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