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| Going Green never looked so good. | BELOW: White Oak Fall 2007. This is an example of a tree we will not be taking down. We go for the worst first. See explanation to left. | |
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Traditional lumber companies are big
volume businesses. They need to take the biggest trees as
easily and quickly as possible. Many then ship the trees
from the US to China to turn them into boards and ship them
back. Each board has been transported thousands of miles
multiple times. Ridiculous & very bad for the environment. Environmentally speaking: How are TreeHugger Wood Floors different? Glad you asked... First, we own the land we are working and - as you might guess - we care about it deeply. We want it to produce healthy trees and a wide variety of species. Over-harvesting one species is detrimental to the entire ecosystem. Low Impact Harvesting Instead of big destructive machines and trucks, we use low impact logging methods. We fell our trees with planning & precision. We drag trees out with an ATV and a fetching arch. Our intricate trail system allows us to tread on the forest floor as little as possible. Worst First. We choose trees based on the worst-first doctrine. Basically, we take the dead, dying or less healthy trees before taking the bigger healthier ones. Why? We want the healthy ones to grow and produce for as long as possible. Remember...this is our land and our trees, so patience is not only virtuous but good business sense! By doing this, our forest gets healthier and more productive every year. Locally produced Our trees travel less than a half mile (sometimes just 100 ft) to our Woodmizer sawmill. The woodmizer earns its name from minimizing waste while producing beautiful lumber. Air & Sun Powered drying process The wood is then air-dried in stacks covered by metal to protect from the rain. After a few weeks, the wood is about 12% water and ready for our Solar Kiln we built in 1992. Our solar kiln will further reduce the moisture content to between 6-8%. At this point the wood is stable and ready to be turned into flooring. In the picture to right, you can actually see the water from the wood condensed between 2 layers of plastic. The water drips out the bottom. We then edge the wood & plane it close to finish size. The next step is our 4 sided planer molder. This machine cuts the tongue & groove while planing the top and bottom to the finished size. Mixed Widths We determine the best width for each board to maximize the yield and minimize the waste. Currently we produce 2 1/4", 3 1/4" & 4 1/4" boards. Scraps used as fuel In addition, scraps are used in our outside water stoves to heat our homes & water. Eco-minded floor sealers When installing floors, we use the best waterbased sealers and finishes. |
  We learned a lot of the sustainable flooring philosophy & techniques from Jim Berkemeir of Spring Green Wisconsin. We have been operating a sawmill and kiln operation for 20 years and 2 years ago we went and lived with Jim to learn the different aspects of producing and installing sustainable mixed species wood flooring. To see our week long working "vacation" to Jims home click here: Trip to Jim's Also, we've been rebuilding part of our 150 year old barn to house the planers and other saws required for this work. Click here to see how that is going... |