Urban Lumber Salvage

The sad reality of urban trees is that they must eventually be removed due to death, disease, infrastructure conflicts or irreparable structural defects. The wood that has been laid down over the years of tree growth has stored carbon in its cells. This stored carbon has a value; as firewood, wood chips and potentially as lumber. Historically wood from threes removed within the city limits was mostly cut up and used as firewood. Although heating your home or business with firewood is arguably carbon neutral (meaning that any carbon stored during the trees growth is then released during burning, making it less harmful than fossil fuels) its still preferable to keep as much of that carbon locked up in wood or soil as possible. Our Urban Lumber Salvage program seeks to accomplish this by milling as much of the wood as possible and providing it for sale through The Hardwood Centre on highway 34. We have partnered with Woodminds LLC,  (a local sawyer) to maximize the utility of the wood saved from the fireplace. Wood which is not of high enough value to support milling or which is too small in diameter, is either chipped or donated to the Mary's River Gleaners who supply firewood to the community.

Below are some photos of the process and images of the lumber ready for sale. If you are interested in purchasing wood please contact The Hardwood Center and let them know you are interested in wood from the City of Corvallis. Funds from this program are used to supplement the urban forestry SIF budget.