Catching back up again.
This seems like a no-brainer...
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Out of the ashes
Different uses are being explored for uninfested cores of trees
Wednesday, August 11, 2004BY MARIANNE RZEPKA
News Staff Reporter
Millions of ash trees - dying or dead - have been chopped down, then chipped or burned as part of a campaign to stamp out the emerald ash borer.
But the insect infests only the layer of wood just under the bark, leaving the core perfectly good. And some see chipping that core as a big waste of otherwise good hardwood, a hardwood so strong it's traditionally used for things like tool handles and baseball bats.
Several programs funded by a federal grant are looking for ways to use the bug-free wood for things like railroad ties, flooring and cabinets - creating exceptions to the quarantine that has kept wood in the known infested areas.
"There are a whole host of options out there," says Jessica Simons, who is overseeing the projects for the Southeast Michigan Resource, Conservation and Development Council, a nonprofit organization working on the project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In the long run, she says, there could be new markets for using all the trees taken down by cities and counties on a regular basis, then simply turned into wood chips. "We're hoping to use this ash issue to recycle all the urban wood in southeastern Michigan," she says.
An estimated 8 million ash trees have been cut because of the emerald ash borer, a native of Asia that began destroying the trees in Canton Township two years ago.
Currently, some or all of 10 counties - including all of Washtenaw, Livingston and Wayne counties - are part of the core infestation. That area, plus three adjacent counties and five separate sites in the state, have been quarantined, which means no ash trees and ash wood can be transported outside that zone for fear of spreading the pest.
The state has set up seven disposal sites where the trees can be chipped, with the wood then transported to a burner near Flint to generate electricity.
In order to find other uses for the wood, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has distributed grants of up to $50,000 to four programs that include removing the trees - Detroit alone has more than 40,000 trees - to move more trees to milling sites and turn much of that wood into usable products.
Milling, not chipping
The Lamont Brothers Tree Service, in Whitmore Lake, has used its $50,000 grant to set up a milling program, with one mill in operation in Waterford, west of Pontiac, another being set up in Whitmore Lake, says Lee Kitzman, the company's project manager.
Previously, the company removed trees at homes and for developers; the wood was chipped and offered as mulch or sold as firewood. Kitzman says the company had a small milling operation for local wood artisans.
With the appearance of the emerald ash borer, Lamont Brothers became a designated site for the disposal of the downed ash trees.
Using the grant money, the company has set up the mill in Waterford, where the logs - ash or any other wood that meets specifications for grain - can be cut into boards and into railroad ties, that will be sent to a treatment plant in Wisconsin, Kitzman says. The state would have to inspect the wood under a special agreement with the company to transport the ties to Wisconsin, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
Already, the firm has hired another employee for the work and may hire another, Kitzman says. Once the program is up and running, the company will almost double its current staff of nine employees, he says.
Lamont Brothers is looking at opening another milling site in Detroit, a move that would overlap with plans by the city to contract out that work using another $50,000 RC&D grant.
With a milling site in the city, it's estimated Detroit could save about $100,000 annually in costs now spent to transport downed ash trees to chipping sites.
Detroit figures estimate that 1,300 trees a year could provide more than 3,380 street barricades, 43 picnic tables, 24 bleachers and another 200 items like benches, signs, planters and shelving.
One tree at a time
Chris Last is working on milling trees on a smaller scale.
He is the owner and operator of Last Chance Logs and Lumber, headquartered in Livonia, a company he founded two years ago on an idea that grew out of his job as a municipal forester in Oakland County.
"I've always seen these beautiful (trees) being ground up, even before they confirmed the ash borer was an epidemic," he says.
Last used his $50,000 grant to buy a portable mill, a hydraulic loader and a kiln, which is being built at his yard in Howell. With the equipment, he can go anywhere there's a fallen tree and cut it up on the spot.
That can be someone's house or a municipal yard, says Last.
A recent customer called and wanted a cherry tree in her yard cut into boards so her son could make her an end table. There was so much wood, "I told her she could have a whole bedroom set," Last says.
Another woman, whose old red oak tree died, had it cut up and made into chests for her children.
He also works with cities and counties to mill logs they might have. Normally, Last says, municipalities will pile up a certain number of downed trees, then call in a grinder that could charge $325 an hour for a two- or three-day job. "All the municipality gets is a bill and a big pile of wood chips, that it has to pay someone to take away," he says.
Last's company saws the logs into wood that could be made into things like picnic tables. What they don't use, they can sell, to recoup some of the costs, he says. Last says he charges mileage and $70 an hour.
His goal, says Last, is to set a national precedent for what he calls "tree-cycling," using downed trees for a variety of items, including pool cues and church pews. "I even saw one gentleman made an old English-style treehouse from ash," he says.
Other uses for ash trees
Meanwhile, Michigan State University's School of Forestry is looking for ways to treat the ash logs and to use them with its $38,126 grant from the RC&D.
Research will be started to see the best way to kill the emerald ash borers on ash logs, says Pascal Nzokou, research associate in Wood Science who is helping with the project. That could help with transporting the logs out of the quarantined area.
And the school will be subcontracting with experts to find ways of using the wood, such as for flooring, paneling, yard furniture and cabinets, he says. A project team even visited a factory that manufactures baseball bats to see if there was any interest in using the ash wood, which has a grain similar to oak, says Nzokou.
When the emerald ash borer's destruction first became apparent, says Nzokou, "people were so concerned about spreading the bugs around that no one tried to do anything (with the wood)." However, he adds, the borer doesn't go more than a quarter of an inch into the wood itself, destroying only the layer under the bark, the layer that delivers nutrients to the branches.
In addition to overseeing these project, the RC&D is looking for a contractor to do a survey of trees throughout the state, says Simons. "This way we can actually quantify how much is out there," she says. "So the next thing that pops up, we're prepared."
Marianne Rzepka can be reached at (734) 994-6820 or
[email protected].
© 2004 Ann Arbor News. Used with permission
Copyright 2004 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.
I have customers that had planted nothing but ash trees on their property years ago only to find out that thier investment had died due to the EAB. What a shame 
Its like telling people that thier family pet just got hit by a car and will not make it. One person said that they would like to keep the tree as long a possable and have it taken down in a couple years. I explained to her that she has a pool under the tree and once it dries out and becomes brittle, a branch could break off and fall like a lawn dart, landing in the pool damaging her liner etc. 
