Q: I was wondering how many trees are used to construct an average conventional wood frame home of say 2500 square feet? I would be interested in all of the wood used in construction as well as all of the wood used in the furniture.

A: The question of how many "trees" to build an average 2500 sq. ft wood framed home begs for some qualifiers. Most of the trees being harvested in Central Minnesota USA, were I live are being harvested as pulp and ground into chips to be re-glued back into wafer board and I-joist. This enables the industry to harvest very small trees (less then 100 board feet per tree). In the western states (Oregon and Washington USA) were trees are typically sawn into lumber, one tree could have 3000 to 5000 board feet in it. If you were to use wood from well managed forests in our area (Northern Hardwoods, Lake States USA) you can figure a conservative production rate of 200 bd ft per acre per year. If a 2500 sq foot house used 25,000 bd ft ( This I believe is high, I like to solve my building problems with wood) then you would need the sustainably harvested wood production from 125 acres for 1 year. Or 12.5 acres for ten years. Our county, one of 90 in Minnesota has 135,000 acres of commercial forest, most of which is not well managed. At the harvest rate of 200 bd ft per acre per year we can actually improve the forest. We could move from pulp (small diameter) and high graded logging sites to more of a pre settlement condition. We have the science to do this but not the political will.

Q: I have purchased five acres of mostly wooded land for building my home. There are some very tall (mostly oak and hickory) trees. I plan to have supplemental wood heat and plan to use smaller trees for this purpose. My question concerns some large trees that will have to be cut when the house is built. Though few in number, the trees seem too valuable for firewood. What is the best way to make use of these trees?

A: Dear Friend of the Forest, As we build our nests on the planet we should remember to fit in to the circle of life where we can. Utilization of the trees in your front yard as cabinets, trim or furniture is an opportunity to do this. Utilize the carbon (lumber) those trees have so graciously sequestered and stored for you and put it to good use. The easiest way to do this would be to hire a portable band saw to come in and make lumber out of these trees on the spot. You can usually find out about these saw mill people from your state forestry service. Many times the saw miller is a person with many skills and could cut the trees down also, as long as there are not to many obstacles around. If the saw miller is really organized they can tell you how to sticker stack your fresh cut lumber so it will air dry and perhaps they could get you connected with a local kiln to take your lumber to before you make your cabinets. There are also some simple solar kilns out there that can be built if you are planning on doing this more then once. There is probably nothing that would stop you from utilizing this wood in some way, short of lots of nails pounded in the trees or if the trees are rotten. You may have to find a special cabinet maker who is willing to use your home sawed wood. Selling you wood gives most cabinet operations a chance to make a profit as a middleman. They can buy wholesale and you must pay retail..... Don't forget, this carbon sequestering stuff works best when you replace the trees you cut. Keep the cycle going. Plant a tree! Or better yet get involved in taking care of a local forest. Good Luck! PS Hickory is the rage right now for cabinets.

Q: I have 450,000 board feet of heart pine posts which have been salvaged from three whiskey warehouses which were razed. I would like to see this inventory used in residential and commercial construction as an alternative to (1) using new growth wood in these projects and (2) seeing the posts hauled to a landfill or otherwise destroyed. Please advise if you are aware of a ready market.

A: That's a lot of wood!..... I like to reuse wood whenever I can also. I tend to use recycled wood in places were the lumber doesn't need to be graded for strength. Siding, paneling, trim and flooring are all good places to use recycled wood. There are several companies making flooring out of re-sawn beams. There is a magazine put out by the National Wood Flooring Association called Hardwood Floors that is full of advertising from many wood flooring manufactures that brag about using recycled wood to make their flooring. I think recycled flooring is worth more then fresh cut stuff. You can get NWFA at (800) 422 4556.

Q: I have been trying to figure out some good alternatives to the use of wood in making furniture. I have been reading about different forms of lightweight concrete and lightweight clay roofing tiles; I was wondering if any of those could ever be light enough to be about the same weight as wood? I love fine furniture but feel sad at how many trees it takes to make it all. Bamboo is a good alternative but it may be limited in the types of furniture you can make with it. Metal is costly to the environment to mine. Do you have any ideas?

A: (Kelly) I have the same push/pull relationship with wood; I love it and grew up making things with it, it pains me to see our forests devastated. A few other people have asked me about making furniture with lightweight concrete, but I don't know if anyone has actually tried it. While masonry materials have tremendous compressive strength, they are poor in tensile situations, so they are much more likely to crack or fracture under stress than wood is. This can be mitigated to some extent through wire armatures and/or massive design. I think experimentation will be key to finding a mix of materials and design that works for you. I might add that wood, if sustainably harvested, is still a reasonable material to work with.

Q: A few years ago I sent away for some samples from the company Pheonix Biocomposties and I think they did give me a detail of their properties. My father, a materials engineer, looked them over and rejected them . He told me they did not measure up to solid wood and were too expensive. So nothing came of it. I think the samples are still in my garage somewhere. I have renewed my interest in them though. I hope the price has come down. From what I have learned strawboard made from various different crops is controversial. Because it can be used as mulch and is thought to enhance the soil if placed back onto the farm land. Environ which uses soy flour and recycled paper is a good one but I wonder isn't it better to have the soy flour used to feed people than being turned into furniture? And will it work as well with a wood alternative paper like hemp or Kenaf in the future?

My favorite choice is the Dakota Burl which used sunflower seed hulls. This appears to be a completely desirable source for an eco product After they remove the sunflower seeds, companies just usually burn the hulls so that's a total waste of the material and isn't good for the environment. I also read the hulls emit a chemical that discourages the growth of other types of plants near the sunflowers so they would not be a good choice for a compost or a mulch. Also what do you think of Plyboo products ( bamboo board).

A: (Kelly) As for the Plyboo product, I am amazed at what can be done with bamboo. I want to create a web page just on bamboo one of these days. It does seem to be a rather prolifically renewable resource, and is amazingly strong. The samples I have seen of bamboo flooring are quite beautiful and seemingly durable. I would think that using the whole, round bamboo canes would be more environmentally sound than manufacturing other products from the fiber, just because of the waste material and the energy used...but it would be hard to walk on a floor made of round canes.

C: I really like bamboo. As long as the glue used does not contain formaldehyde or other outgassing toxins, I think it could answer my problem of the limit on the different styles of furniture bamboo can be made into. My favorite thing about it is the fact that its a grass so to harvest it you don't even have to kill it. Imagine being able to use something so valuable without having to kill it? And I have read since it is so fast growing it has proven useful in solving the problem of soil erosion in many places. I love bamboo.

Q: I am interested in conserving our trees...and I have been hearing about the usage of hemp material...have you heard of this? I would like to use something other than wood on my floors and walls that is inexpensive but durable...any suggestions?

A: I think conserving trees has to be done with an eye on the overall health of our forests. The use of wood alternatives needs to look at the embodied energy and the pollution generated. Wood is the material embodiment of solar energy. 1/2 of wood's weight is carbon sequestered from the atmosphere. Trees that are crowded and unhealthy don't perform and tend to die off on their own releasing the carbon to the atmosphere as they decompose. My experience in forestry tells me if we want healthy forests we have to take care of the people who manage our forests. Encourage sustainable well managed local forests by investing in local wood products and forestry companies that care. The most productive (clean water, clean air, etc.) and resilient forests are the ones that are well managed. A good organization to contact about local sustainable forestry groups is the National Network of Forest Practitioners.

A: (Kelly) I would add that there are many other natural flooring materials that can produce beautiful and enduring floors. You might look at the listings on the Building Components page.

Q: I am interested in finding out, roughly, how many trees of which species one would have to plant in order to remove the CO2 created in manufacturing, transporting, and placing 1 (one) cubic yard or cubic meter of concrete. I live in a spruce/pine boreal forest area in Canada, but the local climate is warm enough for growing a more southerly species and most European/Carolingian hardwoods found in Southern Ontario. Even Black Walnut will grow in a few select sheltered locations, but Paw Paw probably wont. Does anyone have those figures? Even a well reasoned, educated guess would be fine.

A: Planting some trees to offset carbon released in our everyday activities is a good idea. Rather then getting specific about an exchange number and kind of trees vs carbon released during concrete production, we should talk about the idea of how a forest cycles carbon... Planting the trees is the easy part. Managing the forest in a way that produces useful material and then harvesting and processing that material responsibly into long lived products (ex. hardwood floors, lumber used in homes built to last 300 years) is the ticket. A healthy vibrant forest produces a certain amount of biomass each year, of which about 1/2 of the weight of wood is carbon. It is like a block of cheese you take out of the refrigerator everyday at lunch. As long as you only take one slice it will be the same size tomorrow as it was today. At some point if someone doesn't start harvesting and utilizing this biomass then it starts cycling back into the atmosphere through the natural decomposition processes. A forest left to grow on it's own will store carbon through soil building but this is a very slow process. As a tree planting forester I think it is just as important to manage the forests we have as it is to to plant new ones. There are a lot of small private woodland in the US that are managed by default. This is becoming more and more of a problem as we spread suburbia across our working landscape. Consumers buying wood products from sustainable sources are a big part of the carbon sequestering process.

Q: I am writing a paper about the controversial topic of deforestation in Oregon. As of know, after an area of forest has been cleared for commercial use the area has to be reforested. But the not all the species of trees that are cut down are re-planted, just the ones that could be used for commercial use. Thus leaving some species on the brink of extinction. If you could provide me with any information on this topic I would be extremely grateful. Things I am looking for are:
1)The effect on the environment that this kind of reforestation has on the environment.
2)Species of trees whose number is dramatically decreasing.
3)And the species of trees that are planted in the reforestation process.

A: Large clearcuts planted to mono culture is not a very health thing to do to the planet. In our business we try to plant only native trees grown from seed sourced from our region. You might want to check with a group called FSEEE (Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics). They put out a magazine called The Inner Voice. Over the years they have written some excellent articles on things such as the increased frequency of land slides in clear cut water sheds, the demise of the Yew tree and what happens when forest service employees speak out. Of course most of these articles were written by folks that are on the front line. FSEEE was actually formed to encourage and protect whistle blowers. Their web site is........ www.afseee.org Get some back issues if you can. I would also recommend two books written by Chris Maser a scientist who use to work for the federal government.... The Redesigned Forest and Forest Primeval, The Natural History of an Ancient Forest. Hope this helps.

Q: I am blessed to have a large number of older growth pines that a neighbor is wanting cut from her property. I want to use the pines for a pole barn in my own yard. I've had several people tell me that pine was inferior and that you had to cut it at a certain time to insure it would last in building. My question is, is this true and if so when would the ideal harvest time be?

A: I keep running into these kind of log deals myself. Maybe the word is out that we pay for your misfortune. If it's not the wind then it's a road project or some other construction activity
that I end up with trees from. At this point we get the majority of our logs from salvage..... Make sure your neighbor wouldn't go for a thinning of the trees. It is always nice to leave a functioning forest (60 to 70 percent crown cover) after logging. Weeding the forest periodically will make both of you more $ and you'll never know your logging the forest...... I think there is inferior wood out there but I think it has a lot more to do with the size of the growth rings then what time of the year you cut the tree at. In soft woods if the tree grows more the 1 inch of wood in 10 years (10 rings to the inch) then you can figure on more drying defects, less stability, and not as much rot resistance. I like cutting in early spring when the ground is still froze and I can see what is going on in the canopy. Cutting pine in the summer is mighty pitchy. Yuk...

Q: I live in Soldotna, Ak. I am planning on building a small cabin on my family's property. The problem being, there is not much spruce left. We have over 10 acres of huge straight cottonwood trees. would these be suitable to build with. I would two side the logs with a portable wood mill.

A: I have never heard of cottonwood being used for house logs but I have seen Aspen log homes which is a very similar wood. You will want to make sure the building is up off the ground. 12 inch is a minimum, 18 or 24 inches would be better. 24 inch eaves are also a good idea. Can you do a hip roof? This will keep your eaves closer to the ground and shelter your walls from the driven rain..... Why don't you use the Norwegian chinkless method with your log work. It makes a better seal between the logs and looks much better then flattened logs.

C: Sometimes landscaping is an overlooked consideration in green building - in particular, the choice of garden mulch. We have a growing problem in Louisiana with cypress forests being logged for garden mulch - an indeterminate amount of it from unsustainable areas that will not regenerate. Since most of the cypress forests are on private land, the state has been slow to react. Consumers can act immediately by not buying cypress mulch. Two websites of interest on this issue:
Report of the Science Working Group on Coastal Forests appointed by the Governor (www.coastalforestswg.lsu.edu) Save Our Cypress Coalition (www.saveourcypress.org)

Q: I'm looking to build a kind of loft bed with a natural-tree look, and am wondering if you either sell, or know a place that sells, lumber in the form of natural tree trunks. Ideal would be a smooth tree like Madrone (if I'm thinking of the right one), maybe around 8 inches diameter and 6 feet, 2 inches in length, preferably sawed in half to fit against the wall, for the main supports, and perhaps some smaller diameter pieces for other components.

A: (Kelly) Tree parts like this are best sourced locally. I suggest that you ask some of your local tree service companies if they might be able to provide what you need...You might even get it for free. Another possibility is to find out if there is a permit that you can buy to collect dead wood in nearby government land...sometimes these are available for collecting firewood.

Q: We are planning on building a small 12 X 12 deck (raised about 8 feet to meet our existing porch). I live in central NY. Please recommend the best materials to use for such a building practice. The builder is recommending composite decking for the floor and pressure treated for railings. I said I would prefer a natural wood for the railings. I am unsure about the composite decking.

A: (Kelly) Composite decking is usually more expensive than wood, but they claim that it lasts a very long time and is rather maintenance-free. If you have available sustainably harvested wood decking, you might compare this...otherwise I would go with the composite. As for railings, I would personally not use treated wood, just because of the toxicity issue...I would prefer wood that has a durable and renewable coating for protection.