A Future Bench?

American cities boast a canopy of aging urban forests. We actually spend billions maintaining the forests, but people don't do anything with the work. We either chip it up into mulch or burn it.

On the ecology side, I suspicion that Americans cities release more carbon into the atmosphere maintaining their trees than the trees absorb.

Any I live in Salt Lake. We had native shrub oak that fell over into the power lines. We hired an arborist to cut down the tree. The tree company wanted to chop up the logs into chips. I decided to salvage it. I might try turning it into a bench, but I will likely end up using it as fire wood.

Shrub oak, as the name implies, is not a desirable wood. It is tightly grained but cracks. I think it is interesting in that it is the only native hardwood tree in the Salt Lake Valley.

Before we cut down the tree, I did a search to find local companies that would turn the urban forest into furniture. Although this is not an ideal piece of wood, there are wonderful aging trees that will eventually need to be cut down in future decades.

Americans have wonderful forests. We have a vibrant market of arborists. There should be an industry that turns local woods into crafts.