Being #forestproud can mean being committed to keeping forests as forests, being climate-positive, rethinking our future in terms of carbon, and reconnecting people to the forest. Kayla Stuart began her career as a nurse while juggling the roles of being a single mom. Her daughter’s continuous battle with asthma is what led Kayla to look beyond the medicine. She wanted to learn the natural benefits that being outdoors and in nature had on the body.
In 2021, Kalya left the security of her nursing job and the career she had built for herself and enrolled in the University of Tennessee to embark on her #forestproud journey.
Kayla started working at The Works Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee, an organization dedicated to addressing food access, regenerative initiatives, and housing. There, she was striving to help give communities of color opportunities in green spaces. While working with 12 students in the program, Kayla was able to provide them with unique opportunities, such as camping and woodworking.
She was then able to help build the curriculum to continue the organization's work in education after she left. “I think we as forest stewards and forestry professionals and students of natural environment should operate like we are carrying for the oldest living organisms on land.” This is the message she gave to students and members of the program when introducing them to natural resources.
Working in Memphis then led Kayla to her research project at the University of Tennessee. She is working to study the specific characteristics that community members face when seeking careers in green spaces. She is also the program director for the Tennessee Champion Tree Program.
In 2024, she began working with JobCorps in the Appalachian region, focusing on underserved and underdeveloped communities and students in the foster care system to help them become aware of forestry and the environment. The overall goal of the program has been to grow these students into forestry and conservation professionals. “Focusing on understanding how people who come from one space and into a natural resources position view the industry.”
When Kayla was asked what #forestproud meant to her, she said, “Thinking about all the wildfires in Helene that affected western Carolina and Eastern Tennessee and my own personal journey, I hope the forest is proud of me.”
If you are interested in furthering your education in forestry and natural resources and want to attend a program like Kayla's, check out the programs the University of Tennessee offers at their School of Natural Resources
Want to help a give a student a pathway to success in the forestry industry? Check out and give to the various scholarships and grants SAF offers to students looking to further their educational and knowledge in the forestry profession. Give to SAF
In the last few years, the phrase “tree equity” has become a cornerstone in urban forestry discussions and beyond, receiving significant media attention. Tree equity encourages urban foresters, urban planners, community leaders, homeowners, and us readers to ask two vital questions:
How equally are trees distributed within a community?
How can we ensure everyone has access to the wonderful benefits of living near trees?
TL;DR: Trees are great for people and planet! But, city and neighborhood trees are highly concentrated in affluent, white neighborhoods and sparse in communities of color and low income. We can specifically map and plan the next generations of urban forest plantings to make trees - and their benefits - more equitable.
The Roots Of Urban Forest Inequity
How did we end up with such an uneven distribution of trees? A key factor was redlining, a discriminatory housing policy that limited home ownership and wealth creation for racial minorities. Areas with higher investment had more green space for the houses, more trees planted for neighborhood beautification, and more money invested in tree care (pruning, watering, etc.)
Studies of 37 metropolitan areas show that areas deemed “too risky” for housing loans in the 1930s still have sparse tree cover today. Although redlining ended in the 1970s and other urban planning decisions rooted in systemic racism have been phased out of development plans, trees have grown slowly. These urban forest canopies still reflect and embody past planting decisions.
The Health Implications of Tree Disparity
This isn’t just about looks; it’s a serious health concern for residents and city leaders alike. In fact, urban forests are an essential part of our neighborhood health infrastructure. Trees create a host of meaningful, measurable benefits. Collectively known as “ecosystem services,” trees and urban forests are critical to making our cities livable and sustainable. Trees provide many physical and mental health benefits. Neighborhoods with fewer trees face hotter temperatures, poorer air quality, and fewer places for recreation, leading to serious health consequences. A full list of urban forest ecosystem services runs long, but here are some of the essential benefits:
Cooling Our Cities:
Trees are on the front lines of the battle against extreme urban heat, which as of 2022 is the number one cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S. Trees can drastically lower surface and air temperatures through shade and evapotranspiration (the exchange of water with air).
Cleaning our Air:
Trees are sometimes known as a city's lungs, but they can also act as the liver. Urban forests can remove tons (not metaphorically, literally thousands of pounds) of air pollution every year by absorbing gasses through leaves and trapping particulates out of the air.
Cleaning our water:
Trees improve water quality and support stormwater management through rainfall interception and infiltration (water absorbed by the soil). Stormwater infrastructure is not cheap. Cities, especially those with combined sewer systems, are turning to trees and urban forests as an effective, affordable answer to handle heavy rains as seen through the installation of rain gardens and bio-swales.
Improving our Health:
Trees support physical health via improved air, water, and urban temperatures, but they also offer well-evidenced mental health support. Having easy access to trees or even views of trees helps reduce stress, aid recovery, and enhance our well-being. The COVID pandemic made this connection especially clear.
Improving our Planet’s Health:
A tree pulls carbon dioxide from the air as it grows to make food and oxygen (sequestration) and stores it in roots, trunks, leaves, and soil (storage). We have a carbon issue, and urban and community trees can help offset our carbon emissions, transforming our cities from carbon problems to carbon solutions, one tree at a time.
So how do we know where to plant new trees?
Communities use urban tree canopy (UTC) assessments. These assessments use satellite or aerial imagery to pinpoint where trees and green spaces exist. UTC assessments map existing tree canopy and layer that with other geolocated data, including race/ethnicity, income, and public health metrics. This spotlights where trees are lacking for certain groups of people and where expanding the tree canopy could have the greatest impact on living conditions.
American Forests’ Tree Equity Score is a free tool that measures tree canopy equity. It uses factors like existing tree cover, population density, income, employment, race, and urban heat islands to create a score from 0 to 100. The lower the score, the greater the need for tree investment to ensure all residents benefit from a nearby urban forest.
The tool can also be used to set targets, determine relative need, and calculate benefits of trees planted, all of which can be included in dynamic reports. “Tree Equity Score equips community leaders and urban forestry professionals with accessible and powerful data to tell stories, plan for investment, and make decisions about where trees are needed most. Paired with political will, strong and inclusive coalitions, and shared stewardship of urban forests, this information is helping to change the game for Tree Equity” said Alana Tucker, Senior Director of the Tree Equity Alliance at American Forests.
Tree planters and planners can also follow the 3-30-300 "rule" - a set of guidelines for urban forestry that aims to increase equitable access to nature and improve health and well-being. The 3-30-300 rule is based on the idea that urban forests and other urban nature can contribute to psychosocial health and well-being.
3 trees: Every person should be able to see at least three trees from their home, workplace, or place of learning
30% canopy: Neighborhoods should have a minimum of 30% tree canopy cover
300 meters: Everyone should live within 300 meters (about a five-minute walk) of a high-quality green space
Shifting Perceptions
Tools like the Tree Equity Score and increased access to tree canopy data are raising awareness about unbalanced tree cover. Media coverage has spread the concept, and government leaders are shifting their planning and prioritization of urban trees and equitable planning. People are starting to see urban trees as a right, not a luxury.
This shift in perspective has led to the unprecedented allocation of billions of dollars for the US Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program. Most of these funds will go towards tree planting and urban forest management in disadvantaged communities. Urban forest managers now use equity as a key measure in their planning. Data from equity tools helps communicate the problem, secure funding, protect existing trees, and plant new ones. Correcting these imbalances takes time, but with passionate urban forestry professionals, great data tools, and increased funding, we can make meaningful progress.
Our cities, communities, and climate are better with trees. Growing equitable urban canopies ensures that the benefits of a healthy urban forest contribute to the well-being of all people and our one planet.
Together, we can make a difference. Find a local tree planting near you! Take a #TreeSelfie and tag #TreeEquity #forestproud.
We can’t wait to dive deeper into some of these topics in the future! Let us know:
What are you and/or your organization doing to advance tree equity?
What questions do you have about urban forests and urban forestry?
What stories from the sector should we cover in future blogs?
This Earth Day, we’re wading into the great Planet Vs. Plastic debate. And we’re #foresproud to throw in behind Planet, just like we do all the other days of the year.
Careers, Community, Forest Management, Innovation, People
The Death of Sampling and the Rise of Forest Architecture
By #forestproud friend, Eli Jensen
Eli Jensen, a Certified Forester and owner of Ironwood Forestry, focuses on improving forest management through innovation. Using tools like high-resolution LiDAR, he and his team enhance the precision of forest data collection, helping identify risks like disease, pests, and wildfires on a tree-by-tree basis, at scale. This technology is key to maintaining forest health and resilience in the face of climate change. Jensen's work is part of the innovative tech solutions emerging in sustainable forest management practices, helping foresters and land managers effectively and accurately balance environmental and economic goals while supporting long-term planning for climate-resilient forests for the future.
That's #forestproud.
Forestry has long relied on sampling methods to manage large expanses of forested land.
However, with the advent of advanced technologies such as LiDAR and remote sensing, a new paradigm is emerging: forest architecture. This innovative approach shifts the focus from traditional sampling to managing forests at the individual tree level, offering an unprecedented level of precision in forest management. This article explores the concept of forest architecture, its benefits, challenges, and the transformative potential it holds for the forestry profession.
The Traditional Approach: Sampling
Sampling has been the cornerstone of forestry management since Carl Schenk opened the first school of forestry at the Biltmore Estate in 1896. Foresters extrapolated plot data from a fraction of the forest to make informed decisions about the entire forest.
While this method is cost-effective and time-efficient, especially for large-scale operations, it comes with inherent limitations. Sampling only looks at a small portion of the forest. In some cases, it observes less than 1% by area. Critical details about individual trees, such as their health, species composition, and precise location, are often generalized, leading to less accurate management decisions.
The Emergence of Forest Architecture
Forest sampling methods have not kept pace with the changing needs and increasing complexity of forest management. As remote sensing technology continues to advance, so does the level of detail and information that it can provide.
A stand of Ponderosa pine trees scanned with airplane LiDAR (above) and a backpack mobile LiDAR scanner (below).
Much of remote sensing technology to date has been about improving what we’re already doing. Regression modeling is used to estimate metrics not captured, usually DBH, and stands are still managed based on stand averages. Eventually, the information provided by remote sensing advances to a level where new possibilities emerge. It's not just about improving traditional methods; it enables entirely novel approaches to forest management.
Whether it’s LiDAR or photogrammetry if we can capture all of the parts of a tree (stem, branches, crown, etc.), AND that capture is of a high enough resolution, AND assuming we can reliably segment the data of that tree from others, we can start thinking at the census level rather than at the sample level. First, we can directly measure several features for all trees, which provides a census-level inventory. Second, and undoubtedly more important, we can make decisions and manage forests at the individual tree level. Now we’ve achieved census-level management.
Imagine a standard GIS interface, with your data layers panel on the left. In that data panel are thousands of layers, each one an individual tree with all of its attributes (species, DBH, height, height to crown, crown diameter, defect, etc.). You can “implement” a project, whether it’s a classic timber sale or restoration work, simply by clicking trees “on” and “off.” You can tinker with them until the outcome is exactly as desired, both visually and by census-level data. This is what I am calling forest architecture.
What is Forest Architecture?
When an architect designs a building, they deal in details. Nothing is sampled. Every door, every wall, every window, and every utility is planned to a fraction of an inch. Now we can manage our forests with a similar level of precision.
Forest architecture is a new approach to forest management that involves the dynamic and detailed design of forests at the individual tree level. Utilizing advanced technologies like LiDAR and remote sensing, this method allows for precise mapping, measurement, and management of each tree, enabling foresters to create tailored strategies that optimize forest health, productivity, and ecological balance.
Challenges of Managing at the Tree-Level
While forest architecture offers numerous benefits, it also presents significant challenges. The first challenge is data acquisition. Collecting high-resolution data for every tree in a forest using LiDAR requires expensive equipment and specialized skills. Currently, this is being done from the ground and on foot. In addition, it simply is not a reality yet in many dense forest types.
The second challenge is communicating data to field operations. What good is designing a forest on the computer if that cannot be effectively communicated back on the ground? In open ponderosa pine stands, it may be possible to display this information two-dimensionally on a tablet and successfully identify trees on the map with trees on the ground. In dense and structurally complex forest types, there’s currently little chance of doing this successfully. This will only be possible in other areas once augmented reality technology matures.
The third challenge is how to organize and manage this new information. The writing of the software itself is not challenging. There are dozens of companies or more doing so, but they need to know what to build. That will require foresters to work with software developers to communicate how to translate individual tree data into usable data and develop new methodologies and insights on what tools are needed to collect the appropriate information. This involves a steep learning curve for both sides and a shift in mindset from traditional forestry mensuration practices to more data-driven technology approaches.
Unlocking New Capabilities
Despite these challenges, forest architecture unlocks a range of new capabilities that can revolutionize forestry management. While it will never be better than the census level, I believe itis the future of forest management... We can only begin to understand the potential of forest architecture and how it will shape forest management. Here is the first round of ideas.
Precision Silviculture: Projects can be designed to meet diverse resource objectives. Then, management actions can be planned to ensure silvicultural prescriptions are implemented with precision.
Future Visualization: Detailed data on planned management activities can be used to create 3D visual representations of future forest conditions (Figure 2). This helps stakeholders envision the short- and long-term effects of different management strategies, aiding in decision-making and planning.
Optimize Operations: Census-level cut-tree data can be used to optimize logging operations and minimize impacts.
Optimize Snowmelt: Tree placement and density can be planned to maximize snow retention. This is crucial for water yield management in regions dependent on snowmelt for water resources.
Growth Modeling: Detailed individual tree data supports more accurate growth models, allowing for precise predictions of forest development over time. This aids in planning harvests, assessing forest productivity, and managing forest resources sustainably.
Fire Modeling: By understanding the structure and composition of a forest at the individual tree level, forest architecture enhances fire modeling efforts. This helps in predicting fire behavior, designing firebreaks, and implementing fuel reduction strategies to mitigate wildfire risks. Fire can be modeled for different management outcomes.
Education and Training: No level of 3D modeling can replace field time for students and young professionals, but detailed and dynamic digital twins of forests allow opportunities to train in the off-season and in diverse forest types while also allowing students to see the outcome of management instantly.
Implementing Forest Architecture
In 2021, Ironwood Forestry presented a five-acre LiDAR scanning demo to the Coconino National Forest, which led to the full-scale 3,250-acre Pumphouse Cross Boundary Restoration Project. This forest restoration project surrounds Kachina Village, just 10 minutes south of Flagstaff, Arizona. This project is in partnership with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management (AZDFFM) under a Good Neighbor Agreement and might be the world’s first census-level management project. SAF member John Pelak, a forester with AZDFFM says, “The fine-scale resolution and quantity of data produced has nearly limitless potential to redefine how both the public and forest managers interact with and manage forest resources.”
Every tree in the project will be scanned with a ground-based backpack LiDAR scanner, segmented, and measured digitally. Silvicultural prescriptions will be applied to the digital model, visualized, and adjusted as needed. The final version will then be marked on the ground with paint.
Like any other pioneering effort, this project has had its challenges. Existing Simultaneous Location and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms needed adjustments for this use case, but once the LiDAR manufacturers and developers understood the requirements, the fix was straightforward.
Since the project started in November 2023, weather posed challenges with fieldwork needing to be timed between snowstorms. Another major challenge was geolocating and stitching all the scans together over such a large area, which many said couldn’t be done. The first inclination was to utilize backpack scanners with integrated GPS units, but manual ground control points proved to be more effective.
Now that the hardware and software issues are resolved and the weather is cooperating, the project is progressing well. As of writing this article, over 500 acres have been successfully scanned, georeferenced, merged, and measured: nearly 50,000 trees! The project is set to be completed by September 2024.
Fitting into the Big Picture
While it's undeniably cool to scan forests with lasers and build 3D models, there's an important purpose behind these technological advancements. This isn't just an academic exercise; it addresses significant management challenges, and not a moment too soon.
One of the most pressing concerns facing forest restoration in the West is the supply of prepared projects for the industry. Timber sale preparation capacity in Arizona is critically short, with the entire 4 Forest Restoration Initiative heavily relying on contractors like Ironwood Forestry.
The Pumphouse Project is the first step towards a reliable digital system. The next step is a way to communicate project design details to operators without paint, potentially through augmented reality (either a headset or transparent digital screen on the windshield of harvest equipment).
Ironwood Forestry’s prototype Augment Reality tree marking system.
In the face of staffing shortages and low field capacity, this technology allows fewer technicians, or forest architects, to achieve more with fewer resources. The ability to prepare projects quickly, effectively, and on short notice is essential for meeting both land managing agencies’ needs and the industry’s demands.
Furthermore, this approach addresses the uncertainty of outcomes inherent in tablet marking (DxP+), logger's select (DxP), and even traditional marking methods. By leveraging detailed, digital models, the Pumphouse Project aims to provide clear, precise, and consistent information that enhances project design and operational efficiency.
SAF member Mark Nabel, a silviculturist on the Coconino National Forest says, “Even when a complex prescription is clearly understood by a well-trained marking crew, it is impossible to visualize the mark on the ground at the scale necessary to determine whether structural objectives are being met at the stand level."
"Having census-level tree data, combined with each tree’s precise spatial location on the ground, can drive both the development of prescriptions and the subsequent implementation of those prescriptions. Nuances can be added to prescriptions at the sub-stand level and prescriptions can be tested in front of a computer screen before a marking crew ever sets foot in the field.”
Visualizing the same residual basal area target with three different spatial arrangements.
In essence, forest architecture not only modernizes forestry management but also ensures sustainability and efficiency in meeting the increasing demands of forest restoration and timber production. It bridges the gap between cutting-edge technology and practical forestry needs, setting the stage for more robust and responsive forest management systems in the future.
Future Advancements and Next Steps
The future of forest architecture is bright, with ongoing advancements in technology and methodology. As LiDAR and remote sensing technologies continue to evolve, data acquisition will become more efficient and affordable. The potential for more efficient scanning is significant, with innovations like subcanopy drone flights, swarm drones, and better sensors that offer increased penetration and higher points per second. Combining LiDAR scanners with cameras for hyper-realistic coloring and Gaussian splatting will provide even more detailed and accurate forest models.
Machine learning and data analytics advancements will further enhance our ability to process and interpret large datasets, making forest architecture more accessible and scalable. Collaboration between forestry professionals, researchers, and technologists will be crucial in driving these advancements. By working together, these stakeholders can develop new tools, techniques, and best practices for implementing forest architecture on a larger scale.
Educational institutions and professional organizations also have a critical role in this transition. By incorporating forest architecture principles into forestry curricula and continuing education programs, they can prepare the next generation of foresters to embrace this innovative approach, ensuring that the profession remains at the forefront of technological and methodological advancements.
Forest Architecture Marks A New Era in Management
By embracing the precision and detail offered by advanced technologies, foresters can achieve more effective, sustainable, and resilient management outcomes.While the transition to forest architecture presents challenges, the potential benefits are immense. From enhancing forest health and resilience to optimizing resource utilization and supporting climate change mitigation, forest architecture offers a transformative approach to managing our invaluable forest resources.
As the forestry profession continues to evolve, embracing forest architecture will be crucial in meeting the complex and dynamic challenges of the 21st century. By harnessing the power of technology and data, we can ensure that forests remain healthy, productive, and sustainable for generations to come.
Susan Jones designed some of the first Mass Timber buildings in the U.S. - including her own home. Today, Susan and her team continue to pave the way for Mass Timber buildings in North America by showing the world that there is no reason a building can't also be a climate change solution.
Even before its release date in June 2024, the remake of Twisters was one of the year’s biggest cinematic moments. All spring, our feeds were full of tornado anticipation: ads on streaming platforms, new country music hits, gifs shared across social media, and even billboards turned upside down and tattered like a storm had recently rolled through. The global marketing campaign just happened to coincide with what’s often considered peak tornado season in the middle of the United States—an area nicknamed “Tornado Alley”, a place where scenes of leveled homes and clouds of debris swirling mid-air, unfortunately, don’t require CGI technology.
Now that we’re a few months out from the height of Twisters, online conversations have waned. It’s not unlike what happens in the news cycle after disasters hit a local area. But those areas are still recovering long after the headlines fade. Like many post-disaster recovery processes, debris removal can take a long time, and because it comes after the height of the storm, the innovative solutions employed to deal with debris are often overlooked. Across the country, wood product innovations are being scaled to keep debris out of landfills. Salvage wood industries, biochar, bioenergy, and compost are just a few of these innovations in recycling, up-cycling, and wood reuse that help to lighten the environmental impact of natural disasters.
There were a lot of tornadoes this year, and not just in the movies.
The release of Twistersalsocoincided with the realization that 2024’s tornado season would be one of the worst on record across the Great Plains and Southeast. In May, a tornado occurred every day somewhere in the country. While some of this activity is consistent with the shift ofEl Nino to La Nina, rising global temperatures are causinga trend oftornado activity moving eastward into more densely populated areas.
While the definitive impact of climate change on tornadoes remains unknown, the eastward movement of Tornado Alley represents just one aspect of climate change’s multifaceted impact on natural disasters. In some cases, increased global temperatures contribute to more intense disasters like stronger storms or larger wildfires. In other cases, the frequency of disasters is impacted. In the case of tornadoes, a changing climate is causing an unprecedented reckoning with deadly weather events. When the built environment isn’t designed and constructed in consideration of climate, you end up with a big mess, literally.
Disaster debris: An overlooked cost of climate change.
For many of us, carnage where buildings or forests once stood makes for a dramatic storyline, a compelling reason to head to theaters. But for others, these scenes of destruction are the very real fallout of disasters like tornados, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. It can be so severe and so messy, thatthere’s a term to describe the destruction that follows a catastrophic storm,“disaster debris,” and thereare entire economies, government processes, and policies around how to deal with it.The full scope of a natural disaster’s physical impact might not be obvious to those living outside of an area especially vulnerable to these events: that side of things wasn’t shown inTwisters.
It’s easy to hear “debris, think “trash,” and say, “Throw it all away!” But considering the scope and scale of debris left behind after a category five hurricane ormagnitude seven earthquake, it'simpossible to imagine a landfill large enough to contain it. And there kind of isn’t...Many landfills around the country are projected to fill up within the next two decades.
To put it into perspective, the total disaster debris produced from Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana—only two states out of the seven states with recorded deaths resulting from the storm’s impact—was estimated at 72 million cubic meters. That’s enough debris to fill over 70 football stadiums or to cover 18,000 acreswith 1 meter of trash.
It’s true that much—too much—of disaster debris ends up in landfills. In many cases, there’s no other choice: a significant portion of debris is single-use by design or too destroyed to be recycled. But sometimes, it’s just because there’s no existing process for recycling the materials. That’s often the case with woody debris—downed trees, tree limbs, wood from buildings and other sources—which can be recycled and SHOULD be recycled wherever possible. When landfilled instead of recycled, woody debris decays and generates carbon dioxide and, worse, methane, a greenhouse gas over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
Diverting woody debris from landfills could be a key step in meeting emissions goals while creating additional opportunities for communities to rebuild and regrow.
Where there’s wood, there’s a way.
Downed trees might be the image most of us associate with heavy storms. Of all disaster debris, about 30% is vegetative wood waste—that's untreated, completely recyclable wood ready to be reclaimed and reimagined.
Innovations in wood recycling play an important role in mitigating the financial costs and climate impacts of disaster debris. When trees come down in a community, they rarely get a second life. 15 to 30 million tons of urban and community wood is wasted nationally every year. This wood ends up in landfills, releasing carbon into the atmosphere as the wood slowly rots away.
Following natural disasters, urban and community wood utilization and recycling efforts divert wood from waste streams and landfills, decreasing carbon emissions while creating value and driving new markets.
Salvage wood: From trash to treasure.
Salvaging wood for high-quality products is tough work, but it's a rich opportunity, especially following disasters. Reclaiming woody debris and transforming it into works of wooden art reimagines downed trees as resources and solutions. Salvaging wood reduces wood waste, creates jobs in underserved communities, and stores carbon in long-lived wood products.
Because, after all, in a capitalist society, if we don’t value something, there’s no value in it. Right? Right.
As we mentioned, removing and managing disaster debris is a massive financial undertaking. Offsetting these costs requires some creative thinking and a willingness to explore new markets.
#forestproud friends are leading urban wood efforts.
In California, Street Tree Revival and Deadwood Revival Design, two woodworking and lumber companies, are working exclusively with urban trees, milling them into usable lumber and slabs. The outcome is beautiful, one-of-a-kind furniture pieces.
Wood from the Hood and Room & Board also have a great collaborative partnership. Room & Board, a Minnesota-based retailer, is known for its modern elegant furniture lines. In 2023, Room & Board kept the equivalent of over 300 trees out of the waste stream—their goal is to divert the equivalent of 1,000 trees annually by 2025.Since 2008, the Minneapolis-based company Wood From the Hood has been creating custom-made furniture and home goods from reclaimed urban wood. After its high-quality pieces became a fixture in homes and commercial spaces, the business waited for the opportune time to grow and pivot. They imagined a line of furniture that would save more landfill-bound trees, sequester carbon emissions, and supply local homeowners with budget-friendly products. Now a key production partner with Room & Board, Wood From the Hood meets the production needs for many of their high-end furniture lines.
These companies are just a handful of the growing urban wood network focused on elevating woody waste to its highest and best use. There's a ton of high-quality wood languishing in landfills and waste-streams than is currently used and elevating that wood into high quality furnishings and home decor gives that wood a second life. The artisanal results speak for themselves. Check out #urbanwoodnetwork and #urbanwoodmovement on IG for some lovely examples.
The Kenwood Bench by Wood from The Hood
Composting: Waste wood that’s good for gardens.
Unfortunately, following especially impactful disasters, wood waste might hardly resemble a log. Think twisted tree limbs, broken branches, and a smattering of twigs. So, salvaging down timber for lumber is sometimes out of the question.
If you have an at-home compost pile, you might know where we’re going with this. Waste wood makes great brown matter! And yard residual industrial compost facilities are poised to handle the scale of vegetative debris following intense weather events. Often, these facilities sell compost or mulch to agricultural or landscaping operations, enriching soil quality and carbon sequestration potential in the process.
While industrial composting and mulching facilities often face challenges sorting contaminated waste, the presence of a facility in at-risk areas is a step closer to ensuring climate-smart recycling of disaster debris.
Bioenergy: Wood that keeps the lights on.
Natural disasters that affect densely populated areas often get the most news coverage. Of course, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires ravage rural locations too, with wide-ranging impacts well beyond the disaster itself. Businesses and communities that depend on natural resources can suffer greatly in the face of these disasters. A single storm system, wildfire, or tornado can shutter local businesses and, sometimes, halt entire local economies. Additionally, those dead, damaged, or dying trees create additional dangers – they can fuel the next round of natural disasters. Removing downed and damaged timber is an essential wildfire mitigation measure known as “fuel reduction.”
Removing blown-down or damaged timber that can’t be used as lumber still provides value to humans and the environment, but it’s often very expensive. Where some people see destroyed timber and expensive recovery projects, we see biomass. We’re talking about organic material rich with potential, especially for creating renewable energy.
Bioenergy is just that: organic material (aka biomass) transformed into transportation fuels, heat, and electricity. Ethanol, biodiesel, and burning to create steam-powered electricity are just a few bioenergy sources sourced from downed timber. Bioenergy can create new renewable sources of energy (trees regrow!) increase the flexibility and reliability of the electric grid and create new markets that help pay for the costs of removing the damaged wood in the first place. Moreover, when bioenergy is burned in a controlled manner, filter technology can remove over 95% of pollutants that would otherwise enter the air.
There’s a network of existing infrastructure for collecting biomass for bioenergy all around the country. One example is a partnership between Lassen National Forest in Northern California and a nearby power plant, Honey Lake Power. In a single year, the national forest can provide 140,000 dry tons of wood per year—wood collected after fuel reduction projects or destroyed in wildfires—to support local energy production.
Biochar: Turning up the heat on climate solutions.
Energy isn’t the only opportunity for woody debris to make a positive climate impact. It might sound counterintuitive, but we like biomass because it’s full of carbon. One reason we want to make use of it before it can decompose (and emit CO₂ into the atmosphere) is so that we can harness that carbon for good things, like improving soil quality.
One way to do this is by converting biomass into biochar, a highly porous, charcoal-like substance that’s basically made of carbon. To create biochar, wood is burned at super-high temperatures without the presence of oxygen.
Once mixed into soil, biochar has some pretty magical (actually, very scientific) benefits.
Soil aeration
Moisture retention
Nutrient makeup
On top of this laundry list of benefits, biochar is so pure it doesn’t degrade, meaning it’s a permanent solution for improving soil health and preventing carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. While we are using state-of-the-art technology and new vocabulary words, this concept is not new. Indigenous cultures have used charred organic matter to improve soil quality for thousands of years.
Good in theory, great in practice... But challenges still exist.
Reusing or recycling vegetative waste might be the most straightforward aspect of sustainable debris management. But they still face roadblocks. Community composting efforts efforts often face permitting challenges. Biochar, bioenergy, and artisanal furnishings require infrastructure investments. However, they've proven to be significant climate solutions, and application within disaster debris recycling only exponentially increases their positive impact.
Luckily, there are organizations across the country investing in salvage processes and recycling technologies. The forest sector is one of the leading sources of this innovation, from developing harvesting machines to efficiently extract timber to applying LiDAR, AI, and drone technologies to debris management.
Overcoming financial, technological, and policy barriers associated with wood waste recycling will necessitate greater public understanding and support of potential solutions. Media that carries a cultural impact like that of Twisters is the perfect opportunity for this kind of public education. So, who knows... Maybe we’ll see a sequel that shows the other side of natural disasters: debris management and climate change. Until then, we’ll jump in where the story left off... We can’t promise Jo and Bill get together after the cameras cut, but we can assure you there’s work to be done in the wake of one of the worst tornado years on record, and forest climate solutions are a key part of the cleanup.
That’s #forestproud.
We can’t wait to dive deeper into some of these topics in the future! Let us know:
What questions do you have about bioenergy and biochar?
What stories from the sector should we cover in future blogs?
What are you and/or your organization doing to contribute to waste wood recycling?
This Earth Day, we’re wading into the great Planet Vs. Plastic debate. And we’re #foresproud to throw in behind Planet, just like we do all the other days of the year.
Packaging innovations help us shift from plastic to planet
Plastics aren’t great for the planet. But when you look at the things we use every day, plastics and petroleum-based products are an essential part of our lives. Wouldn’t it be great if we could replace these unsustainable products with renewable, recyclable, biodegradable, carbon-storing options that are good for the planet – and still functional for our everyday needs?
We’re working on it as a society: consumers are more likely to BYOB[ags] to stores or ask for paper; plastic straws are on their way down; and concernsoversingle-use plastics are up. We spend a lot of time talking up paper plates, paper cups, compostable cutlery, and other standbys for helping consumers move away from single-use plastic.
How does this work? Micro to Macro 101.
Before we get too deep down the cool rabbit hole of packaging innovations, let’s touch on a few key #forestproud points.
1. Carbon. All trees capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere as they grow. They absorb this CO2 during photosynthesis, releasing O2, or oxygen, in their wake. The carbon that is captured by these trees is stored at a cellular level, imbuing this carbon in the wood products we use today. Likewise, as new trees are planted, more atmospheric carbon is captured throughout the growth process for future use.
2. Cellulose. At a cellular level - one millionth the size of the head of a pin - are the microscopic building blocks of a tree. Cellulose is a basic building block of plant cells and is key to keeping plants and trees upright. (Think: those stringy bits in celery, but very, very small.) A single rod-like cellulose nanocrystal is the tiniest building block of wood. Cellulose (and its even smaller form: nanocellulose) is the most abundant biopolymer on the planet. These tiny fibers are full of stored carbon. Because of their structures, nanocellulose materials have a high rate of biocompatibility - meaning they can easily be added to, or combined with, other materials. Nanocellulose drives innovations that help design waste out of an already-efficient sustainable forest management cycle. By leaning into the unique properties of wood and cellulose, we can reduce our dependence on non-renewable resources and move towards a more sustainable future one teeny wood particle at a time.
3. Fiber. Wood fiber and pulp can be reused 5-7 times before it breaks down past the point of being structurally sound. That’s why most manufacturers use a combination of recycled and new wood pulp. After a certain point, the fibers wear out, just like your favorite jeans. But don’t worry – even this frayed fiber has new product potential because we can use it for a source of cellulose, and the sustainable cycle continues, down to the microscopic level.
4. Markets. A strong market for forest products ensures forest landowners can manage their land, pay taxes, keep forests as forests instead of selling land off for parking lots or new developments, pay for new baby trees, and meet wildlife and ecosystem goals like stewarding habitat, reducing wildfire risks, and supporting healthy forests that function as carbon sinks.
Why Sustainable Packaging?
Sustainable packaging is a critical component of our future. The paper and packaging industry is stewarding a wave of innovation, enhancing sustainability and functionality and paving the way for an eco-friendlier future. As consumers become increasingly conscious of their environmental footprint, the demand for sustainable packaging solutions will continue to grow. The journey towards sustainable packaging is ongoing, and these innovative solutions are a testament to our society’s demand and commitment to a greener future. By avoiding waste, conserving resources, reducing our global fossil fuels dependency with the associated carbon emissions, and minimizing environmental impact, sustainable packaging can help create a greener, more resilient global economy.
Sustainable packaging choices can take many forms, including:
Biodegradable and compostable materials
Recycled or up-cycled materials
Reusable or refillable containers
Minimizing energy required for production and transportation
Ensuring that packaging can be easily recycled or disposed of in a responsible way
Creating pathways and products to design out waste and reduce landfill content
There is a plethora of plant-based packaging options in the market, and all serve as viable solutions to phasing out plastic. But, in true #forestproud fashion, we're focusing on bio-based wood packaging to keep a focus on products that help keep forests as forests, store carbon, and meet our good-for-people-and-planet values.
Inside the box.
We're talking about old faithful - cardboard. And for good reason! We stan a good box. Solid, rugged, durable, and full of carbon down to its corrugated folds. Cardboard is the most frequently used packaging material because it is renewable, sustainable, and highly recyclable. Thanks to avid and dedicated recyclers like you, more paper by weight is recovered from municipal solid waste streams for recycling than plastic, glass, steel and aluminum combined. We’re not going to explore the process of recycling in this blog (but let us know if you’re interested and we’ll write it up).
For a true #forestproud unboxing experience, we want to look at ways that we can innovate and use wood-based bio-products inside the packing box.
We’ve all been there. You’re opening a new box, and inside, there’s plastic air cushions or, worse, those awful Styrofoam peanuts.
Now imagine opening that box and seeing nature.
Sylvacurls manufacturers wood curls with poplar, a native tree species. Light in color with a neutral odor, the wood holds the curls nicely and condensed to create secure packaging, even for fragile items. Photo by Erica Houskeeper.
“While much of the world turned to cheap, petroleum-based packaging materials like Styrofoam peanuts [...], Sylvacurl founders Jim and Mary-Ellen Lovinsky turned to nature.” They use poplar, also called aspen, a fast-growing native species. Locally sourced in Vermont, poplar is perfect for manufacturing wood curls, being light in color with a neutral odor that won’t seep into jellies or jams, cheeses, and other artisanal products. Sylvacurl proudly “closes the loop” as a business. “In addition to the curls being biodegradable, the sawdust that they shake off prior to shipment is used for animal bedding on their farm, and later composted. From there, the compost is used to top dress their gardens, completing the cycle.” Customers are encouraged to use the wood curls as fire starter, garden dressing, mulch or compost, pet bedding and more, to close the loop themselves with an enclosed graphic and pamphlet in each order. Peak #forestproud.
Now we’re pawing through these lovely wood curls, digging out our new purchases. Instead of pulling out plastic bottles and bags – depending on your interests – here’s some stuff you could have bought:
Beer.
Yep, WestRock's CanCollar is a paper-based alternative to plastic rings used to hold multi-packs of cans. This sustainable solution, adopted by major craft brewers, reduces plastic waste and is fully recyclable. CanCollar not only provides an eco-friendly option for beverage packaging but also supports the industry's efforts to reduce plastic pollution. With new beer rings made of cardboard, you have your beer and recycle it all. So go ahead, crack a beer, save the ducks, support wildlife habitat.
Mentos and more.
Graphic Packaging's Boardio paper-based bottle, developed in collaboration with Perfetti Van Melle for Mentos gum, is a game-changer and a 2023 American Forest & Paper Association Sustainability Award-winner. This innovative solution provides a renewable and recyclable alternative to traditional plastic bottles. Made entirely from paper, Boardio reduces plastic use and can be recycled curbside, offering a sustainable and convenient option for consumers. Designed for a range of applications including dry mixes, coffee, snacks, confectionery, nutrition powders, and more, Boardio is an alternative to rigid plastic, glass and metal containers.
Clothing.
Another American Forest & Paper Association's 2023 Sustainability Award winners, Seaman Paper’s innovative Vela™ bags, “are a paper alternative to replace single-use plastic poly bags. Vela™ bags are transparent paper transport bags that are FSC® certified, weather-resistant, durable enough to withstand supply chain demands, and certified recyclable. Seaman Paper is currently partnering with hundreds of environmentally conscious brands – across 36 countries – in progressing their sustainability goals of reducing single-use plastics through their global supply chains. [Side note: we’re working on a blog about wood-based clothing and decarbonizing the fast fashion supply chain, starting with bags and ending with dresses and dyes.]
Pet food.
Ahlstrom's PawPrint Sustainable Pet Food Packaging is making waves in the pet food industry. Another AF&PA Sustainability Award-winner, this innovative packaging solution is non-PFAS, grease-resistant, and fully recyclable, addressing the need for sustainable options in a market traditionally dominated by plastic. PawPrint packaging not only reduces environmental impact but also maintains the functionality required for pet food storage, ensuring that sustainability does not compromise quality. Pet food brands are getting on board, making the shift from plastic to paper.
Makeup, technology, art, and more.
Manufacturers and makers of fragile items that are traditionally shipped in closely fitting Styrofoam cutouts can now pilot bio-based foam. Stora Enso, a Stockholm, Sweden-based company, is piloting their newest packaging offerings: Fibrease and Papira. These bio-based foams come from certified wood, are fully recyclable, and can be used for protective and thermal packaging.
In forestry, sustainability isn't just a buzzword; it's a crucial aspect of balancing and maintaining forests and all the great things they do for people and planet.
Forests are intricate ecosystems. Through sustainable forest management practices, foresters and other natural resource professionals ensure forests continue to delicately balance the needs of society for biodiversity, carbon storage, timber production, clean air, clean water, and quality of life essentials.
As we embrace the shift towards bio-based, renewable, and sustainable products and transition away from fossil fuels and plastics, it’s more important than ever to manage our forests to meet the needs of today and of tomorrow. By implementing sustainable forestry practices, we're not only protecting wildlife habitats, delivering essential products, and needed innovations but also mitigating the impacts of climate change. Managing forests responsibly reduces our carbon footprint, supports a thriving bio-based economy, and ensures a stable supply of wood-based products.
We hope you are inspired to choose sustainable packaging and take a deep dive into the world of packaging innovations, with all these new links to guide you. Your consumer choices directly impact the products available to support our future consumer choices, our forests, and our ability to deliver, sustain, and scale forest-climate solutions like the innovations featured here.
As a bonus, the sustainable packaging world is continually innovating to come up with cool new ways to design waste and fossil fuels out of the supply chain and create more efficient packaging strategies. Check out the Pack It! The Packaging Recycling Design Challenge, a two-episode series hosted by Netflix’s “Nailed It!” winner, social influencer and art teacher, Cassie Stephens.
Happy packing. Thanks for reading this far. We appreciate you making choices that affect people and planet, today and tomorrow. We all have a part to play in keeping forests as forests - and it starts with you. So keep the 5Rs of #forestproud in mind, today and every day.
This Earth Day, we’re wading into the great Planet Vs. Plastic debate. And we’re #foresproud to throw in behind Planet, just like we do all the other days of the year.
In November 2023, Memphis Urban Wood Academy participants focused on what makes urban and community wood uniquely scalable in Tennessee. The event took place at the heart of the Memphis Botanical Gardens and was full of dedicated practitioners working on solutions to divert urban and community wood from the waste stream into circular, regional bio-economies.
What to Do with Woody Waste
Regional variation in geography, tree species, natural disasters, and the wildland-urban interfaces add complexity to forest management across the nation; in urban and community settings, the social, cultural, and legal dynamics add additional complexity to the question of what to do with wood waste. Finding viable solutions to this problem was at the heart of the November 2023 meeting of the Memphis Urban Wood Academy.
Charlie Becker, USDA Forest Service (Forest Service), discussed the importance of municipal tree inventories and canopy assessments to determine how much wood will be generated in the future in the face of aging, diseased, and damaged trees and trends in storm damage and debris distribution. Ashley Kite-Rowland, Tennessee’s urban and community forestry coordinator, emphasized the need to develop urban wood management plans in partnership with solid waste departments and emergency response strike teams as well as local arborists and businesses.
Making Urban and Community Wood Profitable
Local impact and collaboration are at the core of urban and community wood’s potential. Participants toured the pilot site in the Klondike neighborhood where the Memphis Urban Wood Project, an initiative aimed at building a zero-waste urban tree site, is ramping up. This pilot site plans to accept fallen wood from local arborists and in the future, it may also accept storm debris as part of an emergency management post-disaster response. Local staff, hired at far above the annual median neighborhood income of $15,000, will help sort and process the wood and woody debris into the most viable products for resale. At a minimum, this includes lumber, wood slabs, and compost production. This work will be done on-site as a regional processing hub with a zero-waste goal and revenue generating model.
The Memphis Urban Wood Project is a combined effort of the Urban Wood Economy, Inc., and The Works, Inc. Roshun Austin, CEO and President of The Works, Inc., emphasized the need to build relationships with business owners, companies, entrepreneurs, local nonprofits, government organizations, and community members. Workforce development is a key element of this scaled model. It requires investment in local economies and individuals by offering wrap-around workforce development and training to a workforce that has not historically had an on-ramp to the forestry sector.
"If we're going to rebuild neighborhoods, what better way than to use what's already there?" - Roshun Austin; The Works, Inc.
Stacks of wood drying in the sunset
Stacks of boards drying in the sunset
Close up of urban wood boards
By scaling and piloting different models to connect urban and community wood with viable markets, the wider forestry sector can lead with purpose and commitment to advance climate action and social equity. In the words of Jeff Carroll, the CEO and co-founder of the Urban Wood Economy, Inc., “urban wood is an opportunity, not just a commodity.”
A huge “thank you!” for the leadership and funding support the Forest Service and Cal Fire invested in the last two Urban and Community Wood Academies. The efforts of Urban Wood Economy, Inc. (organizer) and dozens of wood utilization experts and advocates were central to the Academy experiences and inspirations.
Rae Tamblyn is the associate director of #forestproud at the Society of American Foresters. Jen Judd is the director of partnerships and outreach for Urban Wood Economy, Inc. This article was originally written for and appears in the Society of American Foresters Forestry Source, April 2024.
New to the urban forestry conversation? Check out our series on what the urban forests is, why it matters, why we measure it, and why we are #forestproud to see it grow.
Unfamiliar with the urban wood conversation? Check out our series on what urban wood is, why it matters, and what we are doing to turn waste to wealth, trash to treasure.
Take a Deep Dive! In December 2022, the CA Urban Wood Academy was held but space was limited. The range of topics and expertise at the Academy was so valuable that CAL FIRE and the USDA Forest Service provided funding to capture the educational highlights. We're pleased to share a full 6.5 hours of FREE high-quality educational content, cut down and packaged into a virtual workshop learning experience via a series of presentations, hosted on SAF ForestEd. This workshop lecture series offers the opportunity to earn 5.5 SAF and ISA continuing education credits. This free virtual workshop is for anyone looking to build or refresh knowledge around urban wood utilization and how the wood product supply chain is key to making significant environmental, social and economic impacts on communities of all sizes. The information presented here ties together urban and community forest management, plans for reducing tree waste, scaling up urban wood utilization and production, creating zero-waste biomass campuses, and connecting to the demand-side of the marketplace.
Reimagining Our Cities
Urban Forests
RECLAIMED | The Urban Wood Project
The Urban Wood Project began as a quest to reclaim wood from abandoned city homes. It very quickly became about so much more.
This Earth Day, we’re wading into the great Planet Vs. Plastic debate. And we’re #forestproud to throw in behind Planet, just like we do all the other days of the year.
Plastics aren’t great for the planet. But when you look at the things we use every day, plastics and petroleum-based products are an essential part of our lives. From electronics, to packaging, to the windows and walls of our buildings, to our energy grid, fossil fuels and derivatives are everywhere, all the time. Wouldn’t it be great if we could replace these unsustainable products with renewable, recyclable, biodegradable, carbon-storing options that are good for the planet – and still functional for your everyday needs?
We’re working on it as a society: consumers are more likely to BYOB(ags) to the stores or ask for paper, plastic straws are on their way down, and concernsoversingle-use plastics are up. However, knowing what to ask for *instead* of plastics is half the battle. We’re not going to spend a lot of time talking up paper plates, paper cups, compostable packaging and cutlery, bio-based packaging, pine needle “plastic” bags, and other standbys for helping consumers move away from single-use plastics (but we will give them the shout-out they deserve!) (Actually, we may do a full blog on cool packaging innovations... *let us know if you’re interested!)
What we want to do now is look at the harder stuff – the stuff that is either so big, so ubiquitous, or so small it feels impossible to change. We’re talking about innovating the way we build buildings, the way we power our homes, and make our electronic goods. This deep dive starts with windows, goes to the walls, to concrete, to electronics, and ends with electricity itself (not a plastic, we know, but humor us here. Wood can help solve our energy needs just as it can help us innovate and design plastic out of all the things that energy powers.)
Let's start with the windows...
Photo credit: US Forest Service
We're #forestproud to see transparent wood emerging as one of the most promising materials of the future. Our friends at the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory wondered if looking through trees was the view to a greener future. “Trees replacing windows—not just the frames, but the actual clear pane glass—is not a work of science fiction. It’s happening now.”
Transparent wood is created when wood from the fast-growing, low-density balsa tree is treated to a room temperature, oxidizing bath that bleaches it of nearly all visibility. The wood is then penetrated with a synthetic polymer called polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), creating a product that is virtually transparent.
The natural cellulose in its wood structure and energy-absorbing polymer filler in transparent wood means that it is far more durable and lighter than glass. It can withstand much stronger impacts than glass and, unlike glass, it bends or splinters instead of shattering.
Switching to transparent wood could prove to be cost efficient as well. It is approximately five times more thermally efficient than glass, cutting energy costs. It is made from a sustainable, renewable resource with low carbon emissions. It’s also compatible with existing industrial processing equipment, making the transition into manufacturing an easy prospect.
With all these potential benefits for consumers, manufacturing and the environment, the case for transparent wood couldn’t be…clearer.
To the walls…
If you’ve followed us for long, you know we love us some mass timber and we talk about it all the time. But what is it? Mass Timber is a catch-all term for a family of engineered wood components. As our friends over at Think Wood and Naturally Wood lay out, mass timber products are made from layers of wood, “multiple solid wood panels nailed or glued together, which provide exceptional strength and stability,” as well as offering "a structurally efficient yet low-carbon alternative to steel or concrete.” This technology is both centuries old and brand new, as the building and forest sector are constantly innovating to build taller, stronger, and faster as we meet housing demands and work to shift our buildings from a climate problem to a climate solution. Check out this cool animation below from our friends at the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) featuring some of the different mass timber product types:
Mass Timber is an essential product in our forest climate-solution toolbox that is helping us build better buildings, faster, and more sustainably. Mass timber - combined with light-frame construction - can deliver on value, longevity, speed of construction and flexibility. Mass timber helps us build faster and more efficiently, keeps carbon locked away, and allows us to provide homes that are good for people and planet.
From the walls to the concrete…
At a cellular level - one millionth the size of the head of a pin - are the microscopic building blocks of a tree. Cellulose is a basic building block of plant cells and is key to keeping plants and trees upright. (Think: those stringy bits in celery, but very, very small.) A single rod-like cellulose nanocrystal is the tiniest building block of wood. Each crystal is one hundred million times smaller than the head of a pin and can only be seen through a powerful scanning electron microscope. Nanocellulose – cellulose in its smallest microscopic form – has immense and untapped potential to create win-win solutions for people and planet.
Photo Credit: US Forest Service, US Endowment, #forestproud
These tiny fibers are as strong as steel, but only one-fifth the weight. Because of their structures, nanocellulose materials also have a high rate of biocompatibility - meaning they can easily be added to, or combined with, other materials. In other words, we can take the climate powers of trees and add them to non-tree materials, like concrete and steel to make them stronger and lighter.
Currently, “if concrete were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases on Earth, behind only China and the United States.” The USDA Forest Service State, Private & Tribal Forestry Cooperative Forestry Wood Innovations program, Oregon State University, Siskiyou County, California, and the US Endowment teamed up to test a nanocellulose additive to concrete aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Yreka Bridge shows how adding Cellulosic Nanocrystals to a concrete mix can reduce the amount of cement in a standard concrete mix. This reduction in cement saves a considerable amount of CO2 emissions, makes concrete lighter and more durable - and it also stores carbon in the concrete.
Wood-infused concrete can help make our buildings, homes, and our built environment greener. By adding nanocellulose to concrete, it’s been proven possible to increase its strength and help shift an essential building material like concrete from being a carbon problem to a being a carbon solution.
And from concrete to electronics.
Nanocellulose – thanks to its high biocompatibility rate that we talked about – can be added to a lot more than concrete. Enter electronics and electronic parts. We rely on electronic parts pretty much in every moment of our lives. And you guessed it, we can add wood and make these things greener, less emissions-heavy, and help turn even the tiniest bit into a carbon-storing component.
Photo credit: US Forest Service
“UW–Madison engineers and collaborators constructed a functional microwave amplifier circuit — a common piece of electronics used in wireless communications — on a flexible substrate made of wood fiber. Wood-based nanomaterials can be used to make electronic components like this one pictured, computer chips, car panels, replacement tendons, car tires, and coatings that keep food fresh longer.”
Electronics can grow on trees thanks to nanocellulose paper semiconductors. Osaka University researchers, in collaboration with The University of Tokyo, Kyushu University, and Okayama University, have developed a nanocellulose paper semiconductor that provides both nano−micro−macro trans-scale designability of the 3D structures and wide tunability of the electrical properties”. This innovation has been tested and modeled and “examples of successful applications showed nanopaper semiconductor sensors incorporated into wearable devices to detect exhaled moisture breaking through facemasks and moisture on the skin. The nanopaper semiconductor was also used as an electrode in a glucose biofuel cell and the energy generated lit a small bulb.” Curious to dig into more ways that wood is adding versatility and expanding the potential in the world of electronics? Here’s a great place to start reading. (Bonus: this article talks more about wooden satellites – yes, you read that right.)
And (last but not least) electronics to electricity itself.
Bioenergy has entered the building. Literally. We know it’s not plastic, but it sure is fossil fuels heavy. So humor us on this. While we've long used wood for fuel, this innovative iteration of domestic bioenergy sourced from woody byproducts scales up to meet our modern energy demands. Domestic wood bioenergy and biofuels are reshaping our energy landscape, deriving energy from sustainable wood byproducts and reducing our carbon footprint. From wood chips to pellets, these byproducts fuel biomass boiler systems, offering cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels. We're effectively turning waste into watts, powering our homes and cities with renewable energy. Check out the video below from the Wood Innovations Program within Forest Service State, Private & Tribal Forestry Cooperative Forestry on how a Vermont school is using domestic wood energy to power its energy needs. In addition to using domestic wood energy, areas of the country like Vermont and the Northern Forest are also using local wood pellets and chips in automated systems to heat homes, schools, and businesses that in turn support sustainable forestry practices. Transitioning to wood from heating with oil or propane can reduce carbon footprints by 50% and make efficient use of wood waste and this renewable resource. This is just one example of the many ways that organizations and communities in Vermont and the rest of the USA are using domestic wood energy to reduce their carbon footprint and their waste footprint at the same time.
Woody byproducts are the backbone of this renewable bioenergy, supporting local economies, reducing fossil fuel dependency, and maintaining forests in a sustainable cycle. It's a win-win-win. This renewable source not only powers our homes and industries but also fosters healthier forests. Bioenergy is a game-changer, steering us towards a greener, renewable, and sustainable energy future.
As we embrace the shift towards biobased, renewable, sustainable products and transition away from fossil fuels and plastics, it’s more important than ever to manage our forests to meet the needs of today and of tomorrow.
Forests are intricate ecosystems. Through sustainable forest management practices, foresters and other natural resource professionals ensure forests continue to delicately balance the needs of society for biodiversity, carbon storage, timber production, clean air, clean water, and quality of life essentials.
In forestry, sustainability isn't just a buzzword; it's a crucial aspect of balancing and maintaining forests and all the great things they do for people and planet. By implementing sustainable forestry practices, we're not only protecting wildlife habitats, delivering essential products, and needed innovations but also mitigating the impacts of climate change. Managing forests responsibly reduces our carbon footprint, supports a thriving bio-based economy, and ensures a stable supply of wood-based products.
We hope you read all the links you opened in new tabs, take a deep dive into the world of wood innovations, and are newly inspired to choose wood. This Earth Day and every day, consumer choices and forest management actions directly impact the Planet vs Plastics debate facing our future consumer choices, our forests, and our ability to deliver, sustain, and scale forest-climate solutions like the innovations featured here.
Climate Tech
Reimagining Our Cities
Rethinking Our Carbon Future
Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products, Mass Timber
Mass Timber + Affordable Housing
As our cities continue to grow, so do the challenges they face. Reimagine the way society lives, works, and plays by moving our cities from climate problems, to climate solutions.
Forests provide habitat for thousands of species, regulate climate, purify air and water, and support the livelihoods – and lives – of millions of people. As one of the planet’s most significant carbon sinks, forests play a pivotal role in regulating our climate by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2), so ensuring forests remain resilient and healthy is an essential part of climate change mitigation strategies.
With changing climate conditions leading to extreme weather events, altered precipitation patterns, and rising temperatures, and with human activities like land conversion and urbanization adding additional pressures, forests, and the diverse life they support, are under increasing strain.
Forest management has a critical role to play to help us ensure resilient habitats for wildlife and thriving natural climate solutions for today and tomorrow. Forestry encompasses the science, art, and practice of managing forests sustainably for various purposes, including timber production, wildlife habitat preservation, recreation, and ecosystem services. Effective forest management involves a holistic approach that considers ecological, economic, and social factors.
Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to forests. Rising temperatures, droughts, flooding, fires, the spread of pests and diseases, and extreme weather events are threatening the health and resilience of forest ecosystems. These changes are exacerbating the biodiversity crisis, with many species becoming more and more vulnerable to extinction. In the face of these threats, proactive forest management is more crucial than ever.
Here's why:
By preserving and restoring the wide range of habitats inherent in different forests, forest management plays a vital role in conserving biodiversity. Strategic land-use planning, protected area management, and habitat restoration initiatives can help safeguard the rich diversity of plant and animal species that depend on forests for survival. Just as not all forests are the same, not all species need the same habitat, so careful, targeted, and varied forest management is needed to ensure biodiversity and the persistence of vulnerable habitats and species.
Forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services essential for human well-being, including filtering air and water, regulating climate by storing carbon, providing pollinator habitat, and enhancing our quality of life. Sustainable forest management ensures that these services are maintained for future generations. Forests are not only valuable for their ecological functions but also for the livelihoods and cultural heritage practices of communities. Responsible forest management can support sustainable forestry practices, create employment opportunities, and generate income while conserving natural resources for future generations.
Finally, well-managed forests are more resilient to the impacts of climate change, which helps not only the overall health of the forest and planet, but also the millions of things that live in them. Practices such as selective logging, prescribed burning, and reforestation can help maintain forest health and create essential habitat. This management also reduces the risk of wildfires and enhances carbon sequestration, mitigating climate change effects and creating essential spaces for biodiversity. Forest management strategies can contribute to both adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. By enhancing forest resilience and carbon storage capacity, well-managed forests can help communities adapt to changing environmental conditions while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Healthy, adaptive, and resilient forests are essential to provide habitat for wildlife, help us address the climate challenge, and sustain human well-being. However, the combined threats of climate change and the biodiversity crisis are putting immense pressure on these vital ecosystems. By embracing sustainable forest management practices, we can help protect and restore forests, ensuring resilient habitats for wildlife and building climate resilience for future generations.
We’re #forestproud to celebrate the importance of forests in our fight against climate change and support forest management practices that keep forests as forests, for today and for tomorrow.
You can help too:donate and help us continue our work to protect, promote, and enhance climate-resilient forests. Tell your friends what makes you #forestproud to support natural climate solutions.
Climate Tech
Reimagining Our Cities
Rethinking Our Carbon Future
Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products, Mass Timber
Mass Timber + Affordable Housing
As our cities continue to grow, so do the challenges they face. Reimagine the way society lives, works, and plays by moving our cities from climate problems, to climate solutions.
Managing for forest health and invasive species. Crafting opportunities.
We spend a lot of time talking about climate change and forests, so we’re naturally talking about tree heath, forest pests, diseases, and invasive species regularly. Why? Climate change has made the threat of invasive species worse, with warming temperatures allowing species to move into areas that may have been too cold to survive.
Our #forestproud friends over at Project Learning Tree define an invasive species as “any kind of organism that is not native to an ecosystem and causes harm to the environment, economy and possibly even human health. Typically, the species grow, reproduce quickly, and spread aggressively because their populations are not controlled by natural predators.” As invasive species threaten forest health and resiliency, the changing temperatures also stress trees out, making them vulnerable to infection or infestations (just like how our immune systems are more vulnerable when we’re stressed or burned out!).
Invasive species are one of the biggest threats facing forests across the US in both urban and rural settings, costing billions of dollars each year in economic and environmental damages. The Society of American Foresters and the forest sector as a whole are committed to science-based, proactive, and adaptive approaches to the prevention, management, and control of invasive species in forests at scale, including the sustainable restoration of forests impacted by these species.
While managing for the impact of invasive species in our forests is a huge financial undertaking, we can apply a #forestproud lens and see opportunity and potential to scale solutions - even in the face of massive infestations!
Invasive species like the Emerald Ash Borer have massive landscape implications. Ash trees were once a common site in urban and community centers, planted for their beauty and resiliency. But once the Emerald Ash Borer arrived, that all changed. From infestation, it takes 3-5 years until the infected tree dies. More than 99% of ash trees that have been attacked have been killed (less than 1 in 1,000 survive). That leaves millions of standing dead or dying trees. In urban areas, taking these dead trees out for people’s safety is paramount – but that’s expensive, and creates a massive waste problem in our already-overburdened landfills. Let’s also not forget also that trees store carbon as they grow, so all these dead ash trees mean all those millions of tons of carbon are decaying back into our atmosphere. But there’s an alternative to landfills!
Reclaiming urban ash wood and turning them into works of wooden art transforms these trees into an opportunity to reduce wood waste, create jobs in underserved communities, and store carbon in long-lived wood products, while driving incentives to replant and regrow urban forests. Urban wood reuse can be a complex process to get started, but the upside is worth the work. If you want to learn more, check out #forestproud friends Wood from the Hood, Room & Board, and Taylor Guitars as just three of many urban wood businesses turning trash to treasure.
It’s worth owning that we live in a capitalist society. If we don’t value it, there’s no value in it. Right? Right.
So – as we stated earlier, removing and managing for invasive species is a massive financial undertaking. To offset the costs of management, we have to think creatively and explore the potential to create value. Just as the urban wood movement is reclaiming wood waste from urban areas and turning that into beautiful furniture pieces, interior décor statements, musical instruments and more, we can also build entire buildings from invasive species.
Meet After Architecture founders Katie MacDonald, Assoc. AIA, and Kyle Schumann, who have set their sights on “a byproduct of sustainable forestry and ecological restoration: invasive plants. By developing architectural uses for nonnative species and timber thinnings —specimens that are strategically removed as part of forest management—MacDonald and Schumann believe the building industry can wean off carbon-intensive materials.” We're seeing this successfully play out already.
"In Hawaii, for instance, invasive albizia trees are now sought after as a building material thanks to a recent demonstration from The Albizia Project. Albizia trees were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in 1917 as a part of reforestation efforts. But the trees soon outcompeted slower-growing native trees and altered the forest’s soil chemistry, further disadvantaging native species. Like Bradford pear trees, albizia are also prone to shedding branches without warning, leading many people to assume that the wood was weak and had little commercial value. Today, demand for albizia wood, once left to rot in the forest or along roadsides, has outstripped supply." Check out this cool article to meet these innovators, explore these projects in more detail, and hear from architects focused on leveraging invasive species as a hot commodity for low-carbon supply chains, from whole trees to mass timber manufacturing.
Approximately 50% of the dry weight of a tree is carbon. Trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere and store it as they grow, making forests important for mitigating climate change. Critically for our planet, carbon can also be stored outside of forests in wood products made from trees that allow us to meet human needs while storing the carbon sequestered by trees in long-lived products. The ability for a building to act as a climate solution is incredibly valuable. Mass timber and lumber locks in and stores carbon in a way many building materials don’t. With the building industry currently responsible for an estimated 20% of global emissions, a renewed focus on and enthusiasm for building with wood is a climate game changer.
As a society, we are increasingly focused on the carbon and sustainability story associated with the buildings we build and the products we buy. Adding invasive species into the building and décor spaces means we can build and decorate our future homes and offices with wood products in a way that keeps carbon locked up and our forests healthier, resilient, and better able to adapt to a changing climate. That’s #forestproud.
Climate Tech
Reimagining Our Cities
Rethinking Our Carbon Future
Carbon + Climate Change, Forest Management, Forest Products, Mass Timber
Mass Timber + Affordable Housing
As our cities continue to grow, so do the challenges they face. Reimagine the way society lives, works, and plays by moving our cities from climate problems, to climate solutions.
In a given year, an estimated 15 - 30 million tons of urban wood is wasted across the country, ending up in landfills, releasing carbon back into the atmosphere as the wood rots slowly away.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
At its core, urban and community wood utilization diverts wood from waste streams and landfills, creating value, driving new markets, generating employment opportunities, and storing carbon in wood destined for landfills. The wood comes from two main streams: 1) fresh cut and recovered from trees coming down in urban and community areas and 2) wood salvaged from building deconstruction.
Let's talk about that first stream of wood waste.
Planting and maintaining trees is an essential part of growing a climate-resilient city. Trees shade our streets and homes, reducing our energy costs and providing shade and cool spots in our increasingly hot urban spaces; they filter our air, clean our water, and provide beauty and a renewed sense of connection to nature. As they grow, trees continually store carbon, locking it away from the atmosphere.
No matter how you look at it, urban forests are collectively a living climate solution to today’s climate crisis.
But, as we plant more trees and grow our urban and community forests to meet today’s needs, there will inevitably come tomorrow’s question: What will we do with the trees when they come down? And they will come down, in whole or in part, from natural disasters, pests and disease, drought, new construction, homeowner maintenance, utility line needs, or old age.
Urban wood utilization began with a goal to explore new uses for urban wood waste but is quickly growing into a holistic means to drive a circular, bio-based urban economy that addresses complex ecological, economic, and social challenges across the country.
Recovering and reclaiming wood waste helps us build and grow local wood economies, create jobs, store carbon, and position cities to achieve sustainability and climate resiliency goals. Each new product and business built around urban wood creates a story and product that connects trees in our communities to homes and people in a tangible way. It drives community and employment revitalization and reduces wood waste, all while reimagining our cities—and our urban wood streams—as opportunities for innovation and climate solutions.
The urban wood movement is here to stay, and we’re #forestproud to see it grow.
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New to the urban forestry conversation? Check out our series on what the urban forests is, why it matters, why we measure it, and why we are #forestproud to see it grow.
Take a Deep Dive! In December 2022, the CA Urban Wood Academy was held but space was limited. The range of topics and expertise at the Academy was so valuable that CAL FIRE and the USDA Forest Service provided funding to capture the educational highlights. We're pleased to share a full 6.5 hours of FREE high-quality educational content, cut down and packaged into a virtual workshop learning experience via a series of presentations, hosted on SAF ForestEd. This workshop lecture series offers the opportunity to earn 5.5 SAF and ISA continuing education credits. This free virtual workshop is for anyone looking to build or refresh knowledge around urban wood utilization and how the wood product supply chain is key to making significant environmental, social and economic impacts on communities of all sizes. The information presented here ties together urban and community forest management, plans for reducing tree waste, scaling up urban wood utilization and production, creating zero-waste biomass campuses, and connecting to the demand-side of the marketplace.
In November 2023, Memphis Urban Wood Academy participants focused on what makes urban and community wood uniquely scalable in Tennessee. The event took place at the heart of the Memphis Botanical Gardens and was full of dedicated practitioners working on solutions to divert urban and community wood from the waste stream into circular, regional bio-economies.
Forests provide habitat for thousands of species, regulate climate, purify air and water, and support the livelihoods – and lives – of millions of people. As one of the planet’s most significant carbon sinks, forests play a pivotal role in regulating our climate by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2), so ensuring forests remain resilient and healthy is an essential part of climate change mitigation strategies.
