ReUsing our Mulberry Tree
Taking down urban trees comes with a sense of dread and sadness. I know that I am not the only one that feels sadness when I see the tree service trucks in my neighborhood. We have had to take trees down on our own property. Trees that have so many memories associated with them, and it is never easy. Here’s the story of how our Welhous Studio coasters (check out the tree photos on Instagram) came to be….
We have a huge mulberry tree in our backyard over our garden. Our property was developed in 1936, it still has the same house and outbuildings that the original owner built by hand. It’s not a stretch to imagine that this tree is at least 50 years old but we don’t really know. Its leaves would fall onto the ground and decompose, leaving nutrient rich soil behind. It provided great shade to our vegetables in the hot summer afternoons. Once our son came along, and we no longer had time for a garden, it became the perfect tree for a garden swing, treehouse, and a zipline. We spent many hours out there between the ages of 2-8. So many hours!
Eventually, the tree swing and zipline lost their appeal and then, we noticed that the trunk was splitting apart. The treehouse was starting to list–which meant the end of the treehouse due to safety reasons. Its use as a playground was coming to an end but its other benefits were still there. Then came the night of a huge summer rainstorm. It was 2021. This was a monsoon rainstorm. Heavy drops coming straight down. The kind that gets you soaked within 2 minutes or less. I don’t know what took us out of the house that night. If the neighbor knocked on our door or if we had just gone out to check on something but that tree is right next to a power line and with the rain weighing down the leaves sparks were flying as the two made contact! Our neighbor had already called the fire department. I called Idaho Power. Nothing was on fire, the power line was burning the leaves when they came in contact so there wasn’t anything the fire department had to do. Idaho Power was out there pretty quickly to assess the situation and didn’t think there was imminent danger that night–which was true but still a little nerve wracking. Just to put your mind at ease, our property is just under an acre and this tree is nowhere near our house or our neighbor’s houses.
In daylight, Idaho Power came out again and reiterated there wasn’t any imminent danger and that we would be put on their maintenance list for trimming. We did call a tree company to trim the tree and make sure it wasn’t a threat to the power line. I can happily report that the tree has been trimmed back and the most vulnerable part of the tree was removed so taking out the power line is no longer a possibility. And we still have more than half of the tree remaining–mulberry trees have several trunks so this meant we could take out the most dangerous trunk and keep the others. This all happened a couple of years before we bought the kiln, but luckily, Bob likes to hoard wood, so we had some logs and branches hanging out on our property. It was great (she says sarcastically–if you are the partner of a wood hoarder, you know my pain)! But, in reality, since there are now resources available that make this wood usable, I am so glad that we held onto it. The coasters Bob made are from this tree and we have some slabs available for other uses.
Conflicts with power lines are just one reason that urban trees come down and how great it is that those trees don’t have to end up in the landfill. Trees do have a life cycle and they do need to come down. It doesn’t mean we take trees down unnecessarily, but it is important to think about their life cycle and manage them appropriately so that the trees can be reused or upcycled rather than automatically going to the landfill, chipped, or burned which happens to many of our urban trees.
There are examples of cities all across the United States that are starting to manage the urban forest such, The Baltimore Wood Project is a collaborative effort that uses reclaimed and urban salvage lumber for furniture and other uses. And the Urban Wood Network (UWN) is a national organization of urban wood professional promoting the sustainable reuse of these trees. The Treasure Valley UWN chapter is in its infancy. It is working to build a network of local wood professionals to create a sustainable urban forest. This includes public officials kiln drying, millers, sawyers, retail and wholesale outlets, and makers/artists/DIYers working together to create a local wood economy.
