Quantifying urban saw timber abundance and quality in southeastern lower Michigan, U.S

Abstract

There is a growing need for society to use resources efficiently, including effective use of dead and dying trees in urban areas. Harvesting saw timber from urban trees is a high-end use, but currently, much urban wood ends up in landfills or is used for wood chips or biomass fuel. To assess the general feasibility of harvesting urban wood, a regional estimate of urban saw timber quantity, quality, and availability was developed for a 13-county area in southeastern lower Michigan, U.S. Conservatively, over 16,000 m3 (560,000 ft3) of urban saw timber is estimated to become available each year in the study area from dead and dying trees, enough to supply the minimum annual needs of five small sawmills. The quality of wood in urban softwoods was generally low but comprised only a relatively small portion (10%) of urban wood. Wood quality of urban-grown hardwoods was comparable to that found in forests in the region, although the absolute volume was nine times less. Although there are potential concerns with harvesting urban trees for saw timber such as low availability and poor wood quality, the results of this study suggest that many of them may be unfounded. © 2007 International Society of Arboriculture.