A piece from today’s Toronto Globe & Mail (for interest):
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The urban woodsman <!—-><!—->
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When a tree falls in the city, does anybody hear? This new salvage operation does and turns it into usable lumber<!—->
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By MELANIE COULSON <!—->
Saturday, February 19, 2005 – Page M2 <!—->
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The tree had to come down. For Rob Grand, environmentalist and owner of the <!—-> <!—-><!—->Manitoba<!—-> <!—-> maple, it was the worst possible news. He and his wife had purchased their home in <!—->North Toronto<!—-> because of its massive trees. The one in the backyard, outside their bedroom window, was especially valued. Neighbours couldn’t see in and it made them feel “like we were in a forest.”<!—->
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“It was a fabulous tree for us. It stood about 2½ storeys tall with a full canopy in the summertime. It was essentially our air-conditioning system,” Mr. Grand says. <!—->
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But at 50 to 60 years old, the tree was aging and had started to show signs of disease. “It was rotting from the inside,” says Mr. Grand, who owns two Grassroots stores, which sell environmental products. <!—->
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The right permits were granted, the tree-removal service booked, and Mr. Grand was sure that his beloved maple would end up as mulch, chipped on the street and hauled off.<!—->
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Then he heard about Urban Tree Salvage, a company that takes trees removed anywhere in the GTA and mills them down to usable lumber. <!—->
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UTS picked up his tree and transported it to their mill in <!—->Scarborough <!—->. When Mr. Grand gets his maple back, he plans to keep it close to him, as shelving for his stores. <!—->
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“There’s still a bit of a sting,” he says, “but I’m quite excited that my tree can be reused. I can say to my customers that this wood shelving is from a tree in my own backyard. I’m not buying wood out of the forests of Temagami. This is something local.”<!—->
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Sean Gorham, owner of UTS, began salvaging work while working as a cabinet maker. “It just killed me to go buy wood from the store, wood that I knew came from my favourite forests,” Mr. Gorham says. <!—->
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So he became resourceful. <!—->
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“I’d go after the hydro crews in <!—->Northern Ontario<!—->, taking the wood they’d just leave as they cut through the forest for the lines, and dry it myself in my shop.” <!—->
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Then the 34-year-old started visiting one of the city’s five forestry waste-transfer sites, which serve as graveyards for trees removed from city parks, ravines and other public spaces, to get pieces for his projects. <!—->
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With more than 9,000 trees coming down each year in <!—-><!—->Toronto <!—-><!—->, Mr. Gorham realized there was a steady enough supply to warrant setting up a mill. <!—->
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For Richard Ubbens, the City of <!—-><!—->Toronto<!—-> <!—->’s forester, the first four months of UTS’s business have been a boon for his budget. Mr. Gorham has taken 160,000 pounds of logs — a saving of about $15,000 in chipping fees from September to December of last year. <!—->
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“It’s hard for us to find places to take these logs,” Mr. Ubbens says. “It’s random lengths, and there are often pieces of steel — rebar, nails, even washing pulleys in the logs. . . . These can do a lot of damage to a veneer mill if there’s a nail in it.”<!—->
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Mr. Gorham’s urban mill in an industrial park is surrounded by big-box stores, factories and warehouses. Around the open lot lie massive logs, a cutter and a large kiln that resembles a giant walk-in fridge and can dry up to 5,000 square feet of wood in two weeks. <!—->
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Down the street, a big-box renovation centre is stocked to its warehouse ceilings with lumber. None of that wood comes from Mr. Gorham’s lot, but he plans to open retail space in April to sell to the public — currently he is licensed only to sell to manufacturers. <!—->
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The lumber he sells can be cut and shaved into all shapes and sizes. Large square blocks are sold to woodworkers interested in making bowls on their lathes. Planks from a 150-year-old red oak will become hardwood flooring in a <!—-><!—->Toronto<!—-> <!—-> architect’s home. <!—->
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The fact that his lumber has a story isn’t lost on Mr. Gorham — or the people who buy it from him. Peter Coulter of Harvest House, a furniture maker with an outlet on <!—-><!—->King Street West <!—-><!—->, says his firm made a coffee table out of UTS wood that came from diseased elm trees at <!—-><!—->Glendon <!—-> <!—->College <!—-><!—->. <!—->
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Mr. Gorham hopes that eventually mills like his will reduce the amount of wood coming out of the forests. “There’s so much coming down,” he says. “If it’s going to happen anyway, why not utilize it?”<!—->
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Replies
This is excellent news. Thanks for posting that.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?