Photo credit: Wisconsin Urban Wood
Growing out of the urban agriculture movement, “urban wood” is coming into its own. As the name might suggest, urban wood comes from trees grown in cities, not in forests. Trees removed from urban areas because of disease, damage or death are given a second life when they are sent to mills and then returned to cities as processed wood.
No one pays much attention to the more than 4,000 trees that are cut down by City of Milwaukee foresters annually. Before 2012, the downed trees were hauled to landfills for disposal, and the city paid landfill tipping charges. Since then, however, Milwaukee has been repurposing its downed trees. Today, the Milwaukee’s annual haul of 2,500 tons of trees gets processed at Kettle Moraine Hardwoods, Inc. in Hartford, Wis., or at Bay View Lumber, says City of Milwaukee forestry services manager David Sivyer.
Architects and developers are beginning to use this processed urban wood with greater frequency. In the new Fiserv Forum, for example, 20,000 board feet of urban white oak was used in the concourses. American elm from urban areas in Wisconsin was used to build bookshelves and kitchen cabinetry in apartments (as well as decoratively in the lobby) of DoMUS—a new luxury apartment building built on the last developable parcel on Riverwalk’s east bank. Developer Mandel Group, architect HGA and contractor C.D. Smith Construction shared the 2018 Wisconsin Urban Wood Utilization Award.
Saving Money and Finding Markets
Last year, the city estimated it saved about $113,000 by repurposing its solid wood waste. Per ton, landfill costs run about $48 for solid wood. “That’s a very real savings,” Sivyer says. “Just on the financial basis alone it’s worth doing.” “This issue of repurposing urban wood has been an interest in municipal forestry for decades,” Sivyer continues. “I think it was the urban agricultural movement that really kind of stimulated some traction in this. This notion of people wanting to know where their food comes from and the food safety issue kind of bled into people having an interest in knowing where their wood came from and their concerns about moving products further distances than what are necessary.”
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Scott Lyon, forest products specialist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, believes the market for urban wood is expanding and says that demand has been increasing in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Appleton and Eau Claire. He says Wisconsin is one of the leaders in urban wood utilization across the country.
“I know there are at least 30 companies in the state that are producing products out of urban wood,” says Lyon. “There is a need, however, to help end-consumers to understand the benefits and value of using urban wood.” He points out that wood in general is a renewable resource, unlike steel and concrete.
Building a market for the locally sourced wood is more of a challenge than finding sources for urban wood. “We’ve introduced a new kind of wood. It’s been a part of my effort as an advocate for Wisconsin Urban Wood and a business owner to introduce a new resource that comes with all kinds of benefits,” says Dwayne Sperber, owner of Wudeward Urban Forest Products and a founding partner of Wisconsin Urban Wood, a nonprofit focused on networking people and businesses that provide or use urban wood products and services in Wisconsin. Sperber says urban wood is creating local jobs, keeping emissions low and “helping us be good stewards of our forests.”
‘Changing Our Culture’
Like Lyon, Sperber sees demand increasing. “My customers are asking me for a responsibly sourced product,” Sperber says. “I think it’s pretty cool that in Milwaukee building and project needs are being fulfilled by a wood source that perhaps came from right down the street and that otherwise would have been wasted. This movement is changing our culture, just like recycling did.”
Milwaukee’s Sivyer credits Sperber with helping to build demand from architects for urban wood and helping to sustain a small industry. “There’s growth happening statewide and nationwide in urban wood utilization,” Sivyer says. “Hopefully, it’s on solid footing and is here to stay. It remains to be seen how much more demand will grow for wood products that people might buy for their homes. That hasn’t happened yet to any large degree.”
Kettle Moraine Hardwoods receives about 2/3rds of Milwaukee’s solid wood waste from the city’s north and central districts, Sivyer says. Kettle Moraine Hardwoods mills about 30-35% of that amount, with the balance going to lower-grade materials like wood chips, mulch or boiler fuel. The cut trees are stored in 30-cubic-yard containers, which, when filled, are hauled by a private contractor to Kettle Moraine Hardwoods.
Bay View Lumber (162 E. Lincoln Ave.) receives wood waste from Milwaukee’s southern district. Sivyer explains that Kettle Moraine has a large dry kiln which allows them to produce dimensionally stable lumber. Milwaukee has an arrangement with Kettle Moraine Hardwoods, which provides the city with dried wood on an as-needed basis for projects around town. Bay View Lumber has yet to install a dry kiln. It produces green cut lumber used in marine applications.
The increasing popularity in the Milwaukee area of urban wood for building material is a homegrown success story—another facet of the growing awareness that sustainability is the key to our future.
