Newport News, VA, Oct. 2--With thousands of trees down in the wake of Hurricane Isabel, piles of freshly cut wood have become a common site in Hampton Roads, VA, according to the Newport News Daily Press.
While most of the debris will be picked up by localities and carted to landfills, some people have started scavenging neighborhoods and taking logs for personal use either as firewood or for building and carving projects.
Looking around at all the fallen trees in his Hampton neighborhood, Mark Hollingsworth said he couldn't help but scavenge some for his upcoming building projects.
"I see this beautiful hardwood everywhere and it kills me to think it will all end up at the bottom of a landfill somewhere," Hollingsworth said.
Just after the storm, Hollingsworth rescued a portion of a large sycamore tree that he plans to have milled so he can transform it into flooring. While he tries to find a sawmill to process and dry the wood for him, Hollingsworth is keeping the stumps in his backyard, where he regularly waters them to keep the wood from cracking.
Hurricane Isabel's unexpected harvest of hundreds of trees isn't much help to lumber companies.
Most companies don't have the capacity to turn rough wood into finished lumber. Even those companies who run a sawmill service typically don't want to bother with residential trees. Residential trees have a higher likelihood of containing metal or other debris that make it dangerous to cut and could damage costly milling equipment, said Lynn Rose, an owner at Kirk Lumber Co. in Suffolk.
Some fallen tree owners, especially those with good wood for building like oak, pine and walnut, would like to be able to sell their fallen timber and make some money. But making money isn't likely.
"Yard trees aren't a marketable commodity," said Mike Mosca, owner of Wooden Creations, a small custom sawmill operation in Suffolk, VA.
Despite that, some tree owners are having their wood transformed into lumber for repair projects, fence building and furniture making, Mosca said. At Wooden Creations, business is up about 40 percent just from homeowners looking to transform fallen timber into usable lumber.
E.T. White of Chesapeake, VA had several trees fall on his farmland and near his and other family members' homes. But instead of just sending the timber to the trash pile, White wanted to save as much as he could.
"There's a lot of good wood out there," White said.
One long leaf pine that fell near White's mother-in-law's home had too much sentimental value to just trash. So, White took the felled tree to Wooden Creations and had it refined. Maybe someday it will be turned into cabinets or some other piece of furniture that can be handed down through the family, he said.
"The tree is a loss," White said. "That's the only way I see to have something good come out of it."
Some people simply want to use the wood to stock fireplaces for the winter. Some are claiming wood left curbside for their personal use. Others have taken to posting signs, like "You loot, I shoot," on top of woodpiles to keep people from just taking it.
Still, most of the wood brought down by Isabel will find its way to local landfills or be chipped down to mulch.
"Wood is actually a problem trying to get rid of it," said Lisa North, office manager at Bushwackers Two, a tree care service that has been inundated with calls about downed trees.
Most cities and counties have contracted with special debris collection services to pick up trees from the curbside, said Reed Fowler, public works director for Newport News, VA. That wood will be taken to area landfills and burned.
