Using wood from urban forests, California Hardwood Producers (CHP) mills and produces sustainable California hardwood lumber, paneling, molding, flooring, beams and timbers for sale to individual homeowners, in wholesale lots for builder contractors and to retailers across the country.
Their mill is located on the 7.5-acre historic site of the old CAL-IDA lumber company and sawmill, once one of the largest manufacturing mills in the foothills. With onsite milling and processing capability, this company is one of the last remaining sources in the foothills for both standard and custom dimension hardwood products.
Truly using "the new 3 Rīs"-repair, re-use, recycle-per the guidelines spelled out in the Recovered Wood Program of The Rainforest Alliance, California Hardwood harvests recycled materials from deconstructed buildings, salvages logs from landfills and city waste streams, and logs that are culled from the normal life span of trees. California Hardwood takes the wood that has been removed from urban forests and manufactures it into hardwood products.
Dave Parmenter, California Hardwoodīs founder and owner, says, "We are the only mill in the area set up to cut for grade by rolling the logs to identify the best cuts, and we are the only ones who have time to air-dry this wood. You have to wait for hardwood to dry, like you have to wait for fine wine. You have to let it age properly; if you try to speed up the process, you end up with firewood. And just like a wine appellation, itīs important where the wood is aged, so it doesnīt dry too fast or too slowly. This unique climate here allows wood to dry without checking.
"California has the finest hardwood forests in the world." Dave says, "The trouble is there is a steep learning curve for its use; you have to waste a lot of wood in order to learn to dry and cut hardwoods properly. So we have seminars at the mill to show people how to grow and plant hardwood trees for harvest and to teach how to process them so there is little waste. We work with the U.C. Berkeley Forestry on tree vitality at the U.S. Forest Service research facility near Georgetown."
In addition to manufacturing, California Hardwood retails a large variety of hardwood flooring, from hand-hewn Amish to engineered wood and laminate. Though they focus on hardwoods, specializing in those native to California, California Hardwood also carries many imported, sustainable harvest exotics as well, and sells unusual varieties to wood turners, artisan furniture makers, local artists and cabinetmakers. The company sells and ships nationwide through their eBay store.
"We are a hub for urban waste logs," Parmenter says, "and we receive around a million tons of wood waste a year. If we arenīt around, wood that is harvested or salvaged here would probably have to be trucked several hundred miles away, but even then, we do some operations here that these distant mills donīt have the equipment to do. Beyond that, the cost of trucking fuel alone may make it too expensive to re-use this wood. But the need for wood still exists and is growing, so whatīs the alternative? Cut down more forests here or in Brazil?
"How would you know where your boards come from, and how many resources were used to get it here? At least when we cut here, we can go right up the road into the forest to make sure its being done correctly. When I do buy exotic woods from elsewhere, I pay attention and know my sources of sustainable teak personally, though there still is not a single worldwide system to maintain a custody-line for raw hardwood materials."
It is expensive to handle hardwood as California Hardwood does. At the present time, for example, Parmenter says they need to build watertight storage for its still growing inventory. "We recently contracted with the Amish community in Pennsylvania to dismantle a barn there-using only hand tools, no fossil fuels. Use a barn, save a tree, you know. Some of these old barns have two million board feet of timber and we require more storage to handle that inventory. We are paying a good price for that wood, which is quite an influx of cash at one time for the Amish, which makes me feel good, but we have to be prepared on our end to treat this wood with the best of care. Saving a tree and providing a use for urban forest waste is worth the effort and expense."
A growing number of people building or remodeling homes today specify the use of recycled wood wherever possible. It not only makes good environmental sense but looks good too. AH
Several excerpts in this article were republished with permission from the Sierra Business Council, www.sbcouncil.org.
For further information on California Hardwood Producers, 1980 Grass Valley Highway, Auburn, phone 530.888.8191, or visit californiahardwood.com.
...
A Second Life for Hardwood