Welcome!
For those of you who have previously visited our site, you will notice a number of changes, in addition to the new Home page. In general, we have tried to make the site easier and more convenient to use: for example, you no longer need to register to post ads or messages.
We have added more pages and categories for news and projects. In the Classifieds, there are two more categories: Portable Mill Owners for transportable mill owners willing to saw on-site and Urban Lumber for Sale for those who are strictly interested in selling their lumber. If you have trees or logs you would still place an ad in Trees and Log Owners and you would use Milling Business Owners if you have a stationary mill and/or you offer drying.
In addition, we encourage you to submit stories of your projects using the Contact Page. You may include one JPG picture with each story.
Our new site is still a work-in-progress so we are open to suggestions from you on ways to improve its usefulness to the urban timber community. Our goal is to provide a user-friendly means of communication among these businesses and to provide them with access to suppliers of urban saw log quality trees. You can think of this site as an on-line interactive magazine for all who are interested in making the highest and best use of urban trees.
I have traveled through the U.S. looking for and visiting urban timber businesses. While there are a growing number in California, there are more in North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, and Utah. I believe there are even more in other states that I have yet to discover. So, if you are engaged in the urban timber business, part-time or full-time or as a side business, we want to hear from you so that we can begin assembling a nationwide list. Only this way can we gauge how widely this idea has been transformed into working businesses.
Finally, I think there are at least four questions that affect the urban timber community we need to address:
What are the common characteristics of successful businesses?
Has the number of businesses nationwide reached the level that warrants being identified as a separate industry (that deserves its own SIC and/or NAICS code)?
What can and should be done about some form of green certification for urban timber?
And, has the time arrived for a national urban timber conference devoted exclusively to these and other important issues to the urban timber community?
I am very interested in your reactions to these questions and to other issues you believe should be addressed as well.
Sam Sherrill
Posted in News
Ciao Sam,
Did my first mail, sended a couple of months ago, reached you ?
I have a few technical questions to sub mit ?
Is the HUT community aware of the positive Carbon balance in preserving urban timber from landfill ?
Are there balance parameters ?
Are there citis producing D.O.C. wood ? (Di Origine Controllata = from a certified place = like for us Chianti wine).
I’ll be happy to be included in the HUT community.
Ciao
Franco Paolinelli
Hello Franco:
Your other email did not reach me.
I and those I know who use urban
timber are aware that CO2 is
sequestered in wood products for
as long as the products exist and
that the gas otherwise would be released
into the atmosphere. No one I know
of has calculated how much is sequestered.
That would be a great research project and
it should be done.
There is SmartWood certification for sustainably
managed forests. They have shown no interest
I know of in certifying urban timber products. I
tried but got no where with them. LEEDs
(Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design), a program of the US Green Building
Council, gives credits for use of local material,
which can be urban trees. This is all I know
about in the US at this time.
An easier way to communicate with me is
via my regular email, samuel.sherrill@uc.edu
Welcome to the HUT community. I would be
very interested in knowing what, if anything,
is being done in your country.
Sincerely,
Sam Sherrill
Hello Sam My name is Bill Burr and I am reaserching the feasabilty of of a H U T company in northern Indiana. The name of my business is Indiana Urban Lumber. I have already spoke with Pam Louks who is Indiana’s CUF. She sent me your Harvesting Urban Timber book along with Utilizing Municipal Trees. Both are very good book,s. (thanks for the concept) Indiana Urban Lumber will offer 5 areas of service. First will be a custom sawmill service useing a WOOD-MIZER, 2nd will be a dehumidifaction kiln service, 3rd will offer custom surface planing. The 4th area will use 1 thru 3 on urban trees from cities and local tree service companys to supply a retail lumber store. Area 5 is a full service woodworking shop to build home furnishings from urban lumber. Any advise, thoughts, or comments are always welcome. Thanks Bill @ I U L
Bill Burr
In California, CAL FIRE has partnered with Palomar Community College’s School of Fine Woodworking in the community of San Marcos to foster knowledge, urban wood project creation and experience in using a WoodMizer LT-40 to cut, dry and create projects made of urban wood. The program is very successful and would be a great resource for you to draw from.
Eric Oldar, Staff Forester, CAL Fire