FACT:
Many common urban tree removal practices in the United States view felled urban trees as costly waste. We know that trees removed from our cities and communities due to death, storm damage, or other circumstances are a resource worth saving. When processed, sold, and utilized, the U.S. could produce nearly 4 billion board feet annually to cushion local economies, reduce expenses for communities, and provide a sustainable, renewable resource to beautify our homes and neighborhoods.
We’re here to change that.
A thriving urban wood market would mean more holistic management of urban trees, where every part of the tree, from seed to sawdust, can be put to its highest and best use instead of being wasted. And it would mean that artisans and consumers alike would be able to enjoy the beauty that urban wood provides for generations to come.
We’re the Urban Wood Network
The Urban Wood Network is made up of individuals and entities from Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin. We have been dedicated to building urban wood businesses since the early 2000s and united to promote and demonstrate urban wood utilization. We are doing more than just saving trees from a waste stream, we are giving them a second life at their highest use, whether its mulch and firewood or premium end products like furniture and flooring.
We’ve learned from experience that the only way to have an ultimate impact, to truly establish full circle urban forestry management, is to work cooperatively from arborist to value-added manufacturer. A cohesive supply chain is the only way to get the highest product from these trees. Now, we want to use our collective experiences to assist other businesses and other states to join this developing industry. We are funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Forest Service.
The Urban Wood Network’s “Urban Wood Toolkit” Webinar
The Urban Wood Network presents the Urban Wood Toolkit Webinar. Urban wood utilization and marketing is increasingly recognized as a component of quality urban forest management programs. The use of wood from urban and community tree care residues is an effective way to reduce municipal forestry costs and waste, promote stronger linkages with the forest products industry, and produce new economic opportunities. For many, developing a community wood utilization plan may seem like a complicated burden, especially when disposal of wood residues via landfill is viewed as affordable and efficient. However, finding value-added uses for wood generated through urban forestry practices can be a pragmatic way to provide benefits to your community.
The Urban Wood Toolkit was created to walk users through necessary components of building an urban wood use plan and establishing wood utilization efforts within a community. The Toolkit is designed to be used by municipal foresters, city managers, community volunteers or students and to arm them with information needed to advance their wood utilization plan. The Urban Wood Network invites these and all urban wood advocates to participate in this 90-minute webinar.
Urban forests can be sustainably managed from ‘seed to sawdust’ by capturing valuable urban forest products from urban trees that need to be removed. This webinar will show different models of full circle urban forest stewardship that are used to reclaim urban forest products from those felled trees, and what strategies have been employed to support the reclamation of those urban forest products.
The Urban Wood Network’s “How to Do Urban Wood” Webinar Series
The Urban Wood Network presents the “How to do Urban Wood” webinar series, a series of webinars during which experts in the urban wood field will share how they’ve successfully utilized urban wood. Urban wood enthusiasts from every link in the urban wood supply chain will gain a better understanding of how others in every link of the supply chain have successfully been involved in utilizing urban through their own ingenuity and through networking with others in the urban wood community.
The Urban Wood Network invites municipalities, arborists, sawyers, woodworkers and all others interested in helping advance the urban wood movement to participate in one or all of these 90-minute webinars.
Webinar #1: Urban Tree Removals – Reducing Costs and Promoting Utilization
Webinar #2: Urban Lumber – How to Produce and Market It
Webinar #3: Producing Urban Wood Products – What, How and Where
Webinar #4: Starting a State Urban Wood Network
Join the Movement
Our mission is to inform, collaborate, and connect to build community, business and consumer confidence in the urban wood industry. Whether you are looking to expand your existing model, start a new business dedicated to urban wood, join a statewide network, or start your own, click here to see how we can provide assistance.
