[getsmart-l] Trees:- An Urban Growth Industry??

[John O'Gorman]

"It can cost up to $3,000 to have a large tree removed, but if it is too far gone, the wood is good to no one and winds up as mulch, compost or garbage. Cut down a bit earlier, however, the same tree could yield up to 1,200 board feet of reusable wood, a fraction of which would be set aside for furniture. The remaining wood could be sold - walnut, for example, goes for $5 to $10 per board foot - allowing the owner to recoup the cost of removal, and wind up with beautiful heirlooms hewn from the family tree."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071015.TREE15/TPStory/?query=trees
MUNICIPAL LAWS: REQUEST TO AMEND BYLAW

Proposal to turn dying trees into heirloom furniture
City received 7,739 calls by September to deal with toll from storm damage
 ANTHONY REINHART 
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October 15, 2007

He may be a third-generation furniture maker, but Matthew Basan wasn't always sure he wanted to climb the family tree - career-wise.

As a child in Montreal, he saw his grandfather's finely crafted pieces throughout all his relatives' homes and remembers his own place as a construction zone as his father, a chemist by day, "built our house from top to bottom" in his spare time.

"It was a horrible job growing up," Mr. Basan, 33, and living in Toronto now, says of the evenings and weekends he spent helping his dad finish the house.

It was only five years ago, when his father built him a beautiful five-drawer dresser out of oak, that Mr. Basan came to know the joy of fine carpentry over the rough construction of his youth. It inspired him to leave the restaurant industry, take up furniture-making full time and open his own shop, Sound Design, at 400 Queen St. E. last March.

Now, Mr. Basan wants to help others turn their family trees - ones in their yards that have reached the end of their lives - into heirloom furniture.

The idea came to him a few years ago when a summer storm swept across Toronto, leaving a swath of uprooted oak trees north of the city. As he looked at the chest of drawers his father had made, "I said, 'Wouldn't it be amazing if the dresser was made from one of our trees?' " 

As it stands now, Toronto property owners are only allowed to remove trees that are "dead, terminally diseased, imminently hazardous" or smaller than 30 centimetres in diameter, without obtaining a permit from the city. To remove any other trees, owners have to apply, at $100 per tree to a maximum of $300, and obtain an arborist's report supporting the application. Even then, there's no guarantee the city will grant a permit.

Mr. Basan and Jay Brown, his partner in life and in business, want the city to amend its private tree bylaw to make it easier for owners to take down trees at the end of their natural life span, but not yet badly deteriorated, and have the wood turned into furniture.

Aside from the obvious boon to their business and sentimental appeal to their customers, the venture would make good environmental and economic sense, they say.

It can cost up to $3,000 to have a large tree removed, but if it is too far gone, the wood is good to no one and winds up as mulch, compost or garbage. Cut down a bit earlier, however, the same tree could yield up to 1,200 board feet of reusable wood, a fraction of which would be set aside for furniture. The remaining wood could be sold - walnut, for example, goes for $5 to $10 per board foot - allowing the owner to recoup the cost of removal, and wind up with beautiful heirlooms hewn from the family tree.

Recycling a backyard tree would also align with the growing buy-local movement and reduce the environmental impact of shipping lumber long distances.

"There's just a tremendous amount of waste going on right now," Mr. Brown says, referring to diseased trees that could have been put to good use had they been harvested at the onset of decline.

There would also be no shortage of raw material, if city statistics on damaged-tree calls can be taken as a measure. This year's dry summer, plus windstorms in March and June, left more trees damaged in the first nine months of 2007 than in all of 2006, according to a report last month from the Parks, Forestry and Recreation department.

As of mid-September, the city had fielded 7,739 requests to deal with storm-damaged trees, compared with 5,764 calls through all of last year.

Councillor Pam McConnell (Toronto Centre-Rosedale), lauds Mr. Basan's "fabulous little business," but says his family-tree proposal would require far more technical study by city arborists to ensure owners wouldn't be taking down healthy trees and profiting from the lumber.

"You can see that a bylaw has to protect from an owner who has dollar signs in their eyes rather than green in their veins," Ms. McConnell says, adding that she encourages Mr. Basan and Mr. Brown to meet with the city's forestry experts to discuss the plan further.

"The tree bylaw is not one that council takes lightly," she says, though "it may be that we'll be able to do something without changing the bylaw."

If they can successfully lobby to have the rules relaxed, Mr. Basan and Mr. Brown envision a day when a tree owner can call on them to make all the necessary arrangements - removal, milling, drying, sale of the surplus wood and creation of the furniture.

Mr. Basan is already crafting unique pieces in his basement workshop, equipped with professional-grade woodworking machines. They include a table saw with a blade that can sense flesh and stop within five milliseconds of accidental contact, leaving no more than a minor nick.

"We really would love for our business to be 100 per cent processing trees and making furniture out of trees that have sentimental value to someone," Mr. Brown says.

As for taking his family tradition forward, Mr. Basan couldn't be happier, bemused as he and his relatives are about his sudden turnabout.

"They laugh at me now, every time I get excited about a new piece," he says.
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