Musings

Report From WIA – Urban Lumber Harvesting

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My first session at WIA 2016 was Matt Cremona‘s presentation of what I would call “urban timbering.”  I missed the first couple of minutes (it was an 8.30AM start after all, so really…) but he made reference on several occasions throughout the talk that he was obtaining large, sometimes huge, tree trunks for free as mature or overly-mature trees were felled in city parks or from neighborhoods.  As Matt said when you get the tree for free you have a fair bit of flexibility in processing it.

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It was a lot of work requiring some creative engineering to get the tree trunks moved and sawn, but it was pretty inspiring in a low-tech sorta way, and he addressed a multitude of issues ranging from the sawing machines employed, he mostly uses chainsaw mills, to the debris that can be found buried inside the log.  He indicated that his experience has been wonderfully uneventful regarding this latter problem.   As he said, there is something special when you see a piece of furniture you made from lumber you harvested and sawed yourself.

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I found this talk really motivating since I have a friend nearby who is retiring and moving, and oh by the way, he has a bandsaw mill he is unlikely to take with him.  And I’ve got 60+ acres of forest behind the barn.   Hmmm.

Can a wood worker ever have too much wood inventory?  So little time, so many trees.