Customers ask often about what they can do with trees they have asked us to remove from their property. If you must take a tree down on your property, you often can make use of the wood by choosing one of a number of recycling options. Consider the following:
Log Salvage
If you are a woodworker, or you have a close friend or family member who is, you won't have to think twice about what to do with a felled tree... you'll turn it into something beautiful, of course! But not everyone has the equipment or wherewithal to cut down, mill, and work large sections of wood into furniture, so we like to promote a local non-profit that can help.
Wisconsin Urban Wood is a Madison-based non-profit that connects property owners with salvageable wood with woodworkers who love recycling urban timber to make furniture or other goods. In this way, you can make sure you keep some of your cherished tree in your home as a chair, desk, table, or other piece of furniture, or allow someone else to have the same.
The tree pictured below serves as a prime example of a tree destined for a long second life. In the hands of local woodworkers and artisans, this tree will be turned into beautiful furniture and/or custom finishing wood. The branch union (where the trunk splits) can often be used to make interesting desks or other furniture, while the main trunk is often milled for flooring, boards, or other "straight" uses.
Cameron measures a sizable felled white oak tree on Madison's west side. The tree died a natural death and needed to be removed.
Firewood
You or someone you know might enjoy using your felled tree as firewood. Firewood. The one major caveat to keeping firewood is to make sure the firewood does not harbor any contageous diseases that could infect remaining trees in your landscape. Some common diseases to be careful of are oak wilt and Dutch elm disease. If you do keep diseased wood, make sure to split all the wood and remove the bark. In some cases (as with oak wilt and Dutch elm disease) you may need to seal the wood pile for a season so the bugs that carry the fungus die in the wood pile and don't transmit the disease your living trees. Always make sure to know where your wood is coming from, especially green firewood (has not been dried or split).
NOTE: Dane County wood is under quarantine due to Emerald Ash Borer, so firewood should not travel more than 10-15 mies, if at all. Please do NOT transport wood from your Dane County home to a vacation home or campground up north, as you may bring EAB along with you!
Woodchips
If you or a neighbor would like woodchips for landscaping, we can leave a pile on your property from the wood we remove.
