Pruning and removing trees naturally results in a lot of wood scrap. Since 2012, Heartwood has strived to save every usable piece of wood possible. Our efforts started with saving dead branches from oaks to burn in the wood stove, and we are now salvaging logs on most medium to large trees we remove. This winter we took the next step and bought logs salvaged from oak savanna restoration projects in the UW-Madison Arboretum.
Buying Salvaged Timber at Auction
We teamed up with Jon Roach from Living Wood Creations to purchase this stack of pine, oak, cherry, and walnut from a UW SWAP auction in December 2021. The wood had come from UW Arboretum restoration work, and we gladly bid the highest fee for the opportunity to use this fantastic raw wood stock.
I asked Michael Hansen, the Arboretum land care manager, to give me some background on the salvaged logs. Below is a bit of history on the trees and the logs they produced from the Grady Tract south of the beltline.
These logs came from trees that were cut over the last three years or so at the Arboretum’s Grady Tract to open the canopy as part of our oak savanna restoration projects. The pines were likely planted in the 1950s in the northern part of the Grady Tract, and were removed where they were interspersed with oaks. Some of the oaks that were cut were likely planted in the 1950s as well, but were planted very densely and thus are being thinned. Other oaks likely filled in on their own over time and are also being thinned as needed. Other species such as black cherry and black walnut filled in over time in the absence of fire, and are being removed to help restore the more open oak savanna structure and to allow more light for prairie and savanna plants.
Developing a Local Wood Economy
We could not have found a more environmentally friendly source of local wood to add lumber and millwork products for sale in our online store. In Fall 2022, we plan to add some dimensional lumber, along with flooring options, paneling, and basic trim. Collaborating with Living Wood Creations will allow us to offer finished Arboretum pine, oak, cherry, and walnut lumber for your home projects. Our goal is to produce small batch runs for home projects, remodels or new construction.
This truly is a local product that is supporting local businesses. The lumber was milled in Pine Bluff by Dan Watts of Blue Mountain Logsmith, kiln dried in Cambria by Cozy Cabin Woodcrafts, and finished by Living Wood Creations in Oregon. We are proud to be a part of this process and now have a greater appreciation of the work that goes into locally sourced lumber.
When each board is finished it will have been touched around 10 times! Each step of the process adds value to the board, because let’s face it, the log has little value in its raw form. If it did, tree care companies would not cut them into firewood or chip them so often. Generally, raw logs are treated as a waste stream, a nuisance to get rid of. At Heartwood, we have always tried to find a higher purpose for your departed trees. This year we are getting closer to realizing that goal more broadly.
Seeing the process firsthand only makes us want to salvage more logs! Turning a 22” diameter pine log into 15 beautiful boards is pretty fun to watch. Granted, around log number 10 the repetitive nature of milling can be mind-numbing, but Dan moves fairly quickly, so it's best to pay attention!
Salvaged Wood as a Symbol
The initial motivation behind purchasing and milling these logs was to adorn the new shop we are opening this fall with some Arboretum wood we acquired through UW Swap. Since our new home will be adjacent to the Arb, we want to feature some of the wood that came from there. We will use pine to clad the inside and outside of the building, making a truly local building using material from trees that grew just down the street!
Architect’s rendering of HTC shop interior
Turning the logs we salvage from the landscape here in Madison into usable products for our community is an exciting adventure, one that we hope creates more value for the trees being removed from the landscape.
Heartwood also hopes that this adventure creates more connections to our urban canopy and encourages others to seek out alternative wood sources, especially those that salvage “waste” timber from removal projects. We strive to be the beginning of that log’s long life, not the end. The tree may have needed to be removed, but the wood is still very useful for generations to come.
