Carving niche markets for damaged urban trees

MUNICIPAL TREES are an asset until they are blown down by storms, sustain severe damage from insects or disease, need to be cut down for construction projects or simply die of old age. When trees need to be removed, they become a liability for municipalities, which are faced with the costs associated with removal. Rising labor and transportation costs, increased landfill or tipping fees, and lost opportunity costs (money that cannot be spent elsewhere in the community) create a financial burden for municipal tree programs. Furthermore, even if disposal costs were not an issue, landfill space is dwindling and tree disposal in landfills has been banned, or at least reduced, by regulations in many states.

In the meantime, the American appetite for wood continues to grow. Although net growth on commercial U.S. forestlands exceeds harvest by about one-third, our nation is still a net importer of forest products. The utilization, or recycling, of municipal trees can contribute to the conservation of forest and resources by generating wood products from trees that need to be removed anyway. Saw logs for high quality furniture, cabinets and flooring; pulpwood for paper products; fuel wood for residential and commercial heating; wood chips for mulch; and specialty items for unique woodworking projects are all finding niche markets. Innovators from across the country who are utilizing municipal trees are realizing the economic benefits in addition to the environmental advantages.

PROFITABLE PARTNERSHIPS

In 1991, Ed Lempicki of New Jersey Forestry Services, a branch of the State's Division of Parks and Forestry, received a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service for a project titled "Municipal Forest Products Marketing Service." The project, which surveyed all of New Jersey's 567 municipalities, found that tree removal and disposal was a costly burden to many communities. In an effort to help ease that burden, New Jersey Forestry Services linked individual municipalities to local sawmills and provided marketing training.

Lempicki went on to speak nationally about the marketing of saw logs from state tree removals. He credits the federal grant and the established Federal-State partnership with putting the idea of marketing saw logs into action. He has also developed successful partnerships with the New Jersey Bureau of Recycling and the New Jersey Office of

Sustainability.

Across the nation, Eric ldar of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), took eight years to develop a network of partners who utilize urban trees for traditional wood products. The CDF owns five portable sawmills, which it loans to municipalities for converting trees into valueadded lumber products. A partnership with the California Integrated Waste Management Board is funding portable dehumidification dry kilns, typically used in conjunction with the mills. Oldar has also led the CDF in partnerships with the California Urban Forest Council in San Diego and with Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley to host workshops on value-added products from urban trees.

The organization has also partnered with a woodworking school, and will continue to work with private industry, and educational and nonprofit organizations to inspire woodworkers to use municipal trees to create value-added products. "Planting trees and engaging people are important, but sometimes we don't see the forest for the trees. We need to understand the urban wood waste management stream - which includes managing trees for age and species diversity and value-added wood products," Oldar says.

A fallen-down cherry tree in Cincinnati, Ohio served as the inspiration for Harvesting Urban Timber, an effort started by amateur woodworker Sam Sherrill. A pilot project initiated by Sherrill and a colleague was publicized by Popular Woodworking magazine and local newspapers, and directly supported by Wood-Mizer Products, Inc., which donated a portable sawmill, and the Cincinnati Park Board, which cut select logs into proper lengths and loaded them onto trucks. The project links tree owners who want to convert trees into furniture with local woodworkers. For example, an old oak tree that had stood on a family farm since the late 1800s, and was estimated to be over 500 years old, was made into a dining room table with sentimental value after it was blown over in a storm.

MUNICIPALITIES TAKE CHARGE

State law prohibits wood residuals from entering landfills in Wisconsin, so municipalities have learned to be creative in developing wood markets. As the city forester for Wausau, Wisconsin, and the park forester for Marathon County, Blaine Peterson tries to utilize as much wood as possible from tree removals in city forests and on county parklands. Located within an hour's drive of three paper mills, he taps into those existing markets and sells municipal trees as pulpwood. Logs not used for pulpwood or saw logs are cut into firewood and sold at two county park campgrounds. Remaining wood is chipped and used in a variety of applications from landscaping projects to erosion control mulch to cover material for dust control at a local open pit mine. Peterson has also learned to trade lumber for labor and negotiates with local sawmills to process municipal wood for city projects in exchange for a portion of wood as payment.

Similarly, when California municipalities were directed to halve landfill shipments by 2000, the city of Lompoc needed to find a way to keep old trees that needed to be removed out of the city landfill. At the same time, the city could afford only inexpensive pine for park benches - wood that is quickly damaged by skateboards and vandalism. To solve the problem, old hardwood trees were removed and made into durable park benches. Leftover logs were donated to local artisans or chipped. However, with more trees to be removed, and without a market for additional wood chips, the municipality approached the California Department of Forestry for a loaned sawmill. By milling the lumber, Parks and Urban Forestry Manager Cindy McCall was able to supply high quality hardwood for city projects. Ash trees have been used for picnic tables and flooring, and milling the wood has saved the city nearly $40,000 in tipping fees. McCall has also supplied Pacific Coast Lumber with urban wood. "It seems crazy to be searching the tropical rain forests for underutilized species when we have an abundance of the same species being removed everyday from our urban areas," she explains. "Trees from urban forests should never be landfilled. They're too valuable to be wasted."

Elsewhere, in Bismarck, North Dakota and in Cincinnati, Ohio, municipalities have developed ways to utilize and market urban wood residuals. In Bismarck, wood chips and firewood are stockpiled at the city landfill and sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Firewood is also sold at $10/ton and individuals can cut logs to length and drive across a scale to determine payment. Cincinnati attributes its 100 percent wood utilization rate to the effective use of city-operated wood yards for selling firewood and wood chips. The city uses tree service firms for all tree work, and the firms stock the city wood yard with firewood and chips. The annual sales are well publicized. Profits go toward the planting of trees in neighborhoods where old trees have fallen or been harvested.

TREE SERVICE FIRMS GET CREATIVE

Many tree service firms are beginning to recognize the value of lumber that can be transformed into valueadded products. Jim Cook, owner of Able Tree Service in Missoula, Montana, realized that many local artists were constantly seeking wood for their projects. He created a database of these artists, complete with information on preferred species. Today, he supplies artists with free wood of the preferred species from his tree removal projects. Artists have used his removed trees to make carousel horses, furniture and wooden bowls.

The majority of wood from Cook's tree removal service is used either for firewood or chipped for mulch. However, Cook believes that someday a market might develop that would enable him to sell many of his tree removals. "I want to encourage a market for municipal trees that are removed due to pest problems, storm damage or old age," he says.

Similarly, Kerry Burruss, owner of Trees-n-More tree trimming and removal business in Berryton, Kansas, began to see value in some of the trees he was asked to remove and subsequently purchased a portable sawmill with state grant money. Meanwhile, Western Resources, a utility company, began searching for a way to stop the practice of landfilling old utility poles. A partnership between Trees-n-More and Western Resources has recycled more than 39,000 board feet of lumber from utility poles. Typically made of western red cedar, southern yellow pine and Douglas fir, Burruss uses his portable mill to cut the lumber from utility poles into various dimensions. The lumber is then used in kits to make nest boxes for bluebirds, kestrels, wood ducks and bats, among other products.

The purchase of a portable sawmill and drying kiln was crucial to the success of West Coast Arborists, Inc.'s wood utilization program. The company, which is based in Anaheim, California and employs more than 350 people, has annual tree care contracts with 90 southern California municipalities. The CDF loaned a portable sawmill to the company in 1999 to demonstrate municipal wood utilization and to mill hardwood lumber from logs that traditionally would have been either sent to a landfill, chipped or converted to firewood. The high quality of the lumber and regional interest in recycled and value-added products led the company to purchase its own equipment. "Everyone has a good feeling about using recycled materials," says Vice President Andy Trotter. "We need to spread the word about the potential of urban tree use."

Value-added products like park benches and picnic tables are built out of the lumber and sold back to the communities that the trees came from, completing the recycling loop for the company. It also markets lumber to various outlets, including woodworkers, school industrial art programs and hardwood retailers. Because over 300 tons of green residue are generated daily by West Coast - the company is networking with others interested in municipal tree utilization. Since West Coast can't use and sell all the potential lumber, logs are often delivered to mills in Southern California with similar objectives.

ENTREPRENEURS SEE MARKETS

Although many people fueling the urban wood utilization movement work hands-on with trees on an everyday basis, people who witness wood waste at landfills are also working hard to develop wood markets. For example, Mark Duncan, a third generation woodworker and landfill groundwater monitoring specialist for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), grew tired of seeing large quantities of high quality woods such as oak, walnut, maple and cedar being dumped routinely at state landfills and burned. As a result, he formed 2nd Chance Woods, a business to give landfilled trees in Topeka, Kansas a second "go-round." The start-up funds came from a KDHE solid waste grant. The one person, part-time business saws logs dropped off at landfills into lumber and sells them to the public. Volunteers can help with sawing in exchange for lumber at a rate of eight board feet an hour. Duncan also makes and sells indoor and outdoor furniture.

Another example, Urban Forest Woodworks, is the result of George Hessenthaler's observant nature. Salt Lake City, Utah has been home to an aggressive shade tree planting program for more than 150 years. Hessenthaler watched for years as old trees were harvested and dropped off at the landfill. Like Duncan, tired of seeing hardwood like walnut, ash, locust, sycamore, maple, catalpa and chestnut end up wasted, Hessenthaler started a wood utilization business. Urban Forest Woodworks of Logan, Utah produces medium-and high-end jewelry and corporate boxes. Hessenthaler says he's found that gift store owners are receptive to the idea of selling products made from urban trees and are eager to display the brochures that describe the environmental friendliness of the products. In 12 years of business, Hessenthaler estimates he has salvaged more than 250,000 board feet from landfills. "Anything made of wood can be made of urban forest wood," he says.

Joe Slater and his father, Frank, who also have a long history with landfills and wood, would agree with that statement. Frank is an accomplished cabinetmaker and Joe is a graduate of North Carolina State University's furniture manufacturing and management program. Together, the men operate Slater Industries Demolition Landfill, in Lewisville, North Carolina, which primarily receives brush, stumps, logs and concrete. Using a portable sawmill that is currently being modified to be a permanent structure, the Slaters produce stakes that are sold to local utilities and land surveyors, framing lumber and hardwood "grade" lumber. Major customers for the higher quality lumber are local hobbyists and furniture makers.

Permanent sawmills with contracts to collect trees that would otherwise end up in landfills also benefit from utilizing urban wood. Dave Parmenter, owner of California Hardwood Producers, Inc., in Auburn, California, says his company has never cut one speck of wood that it hasn't been able to find a buyer for. It gets trees from State parks and fire control agencies, local utilities and the State highway department. It also has a contract with Sacramento to mill all of the trees the city would otherwise landfill. The milled lumber is sold to local manufacturers and cabinet shops. However, flooring is the company's top product. A large selection of hardwoods, from black acacia to red eucalyptus to Brazilian cherry, Parmenter's high volume milling operation - which has seen its share of ups and downs, including surviving an electrical fire in 1997 - allows his company to offer customers a wide selection of flooring choices.

CONCLUSIONS

Wood utilization projects differ in size, scope and geographic location. However, one aspect remains the same: Everyone involved in the projects has a "wood is good" attitude and a strong desire to make municipal tree utilization work. In the United States, more than 200 million cubic yards of urban tree and landscape residuals are generated annually, according to an article in Journal of Arboriculture. Of that number, 15 percent, or 30 million cubic yards, are logs. To put this number into perspective, if these logs were sawn into boards, they theoretically would amount to 3.8 billion feet of lumber, or nearly 30 percent of the hardwood lumber produced annually in the United States. Quite a sustainable business opportunity, isn't it?