Wisconsin Urban Wood Program

Air Date:
Heard On The Larry Meiller Show
crew taking down tree on city street
Kevin CC-BY

What happens to the trees that are removed from our urban landscape? Our guest tells us about the work being done by the Wisconsin Urban Wood organization to divert quality logs from the chipper and landfill, and transform them into lumber, furniture, flooring, art, and architecture.

Featured in this Show

  • Fallen Trees Get New Life With Wisconsin Urban Wood

    Over the past few decades, Wisconsin trees have fallen prey to the emerald ash borer. The insect is deadly to trees, and the influx of them has led to scores of trees across the state being cut down.

    But now, those insects have sparked a movement.

    While many trees affected by emerald ash borers or other diseases end up in landfills, some envisioned a different path for the many trees that have been, and still need to be, taken down in both urban and suburban areas.

    Enter Wisconsin Urban Wood. Dwayne Sperber is a founding partner of the organization, which repurposes trees that have been taken down due to the disease or new development projects.

    Sperber said when a tree needs to be taken down the municipality’s first priority is keeping residents safe. That means getting the tree down as safely and quickly as possible, but also getting it off the property. Often, that means chipping the tree or sending it to a landfill.

    But Sperber and Wisconsin Urban Wood want people to think beyond those options.

    “Safety of residents is our priority in all of this, but we’re (also) creating change,” Sperber said.

    The organization aims to connect arborists with architects and builders to get people to use urban wood in their projects. Urban wood simply means any wood that’s not harvested at a farm.

    Creating an interest for urban wood means trees that come down in neighborhoods can see a new life as tables, chairs or buildings, instead of being chipped and sent to a landfill, Sperber said.

    While many Wisconsin carpenters and builders now seek out urban wood, it didn’t happen overnight. Sperber said when trees needed to come down in large numbers in the early 2000s because of the emerald ash borer, some saw an opportunity to turn those trees into something usable.

    It took another decade for the Wisconsin Urban Wood organization to form and start marketing what they saw as a new product. The organization is made up of people from all levels of the market chain who work together to make sure urban wood can be recycled into something useful.

    Wisconsin Urban Wood’s tagline is “trees first, wood next.”

    Sperber said the organization is committed to connecting people with urban wood, but that all those trees came down for reasons other than to make a product. They don’t cut down any trees for lumber, but rather repurpose trees that had to come down anyway.

    Some Wisconsin municipalities have been leaders in repurposing fallen trees. Milwaukee has become a model in Wisconsin and across the country for how it handles its trees, Sperber said.


    Walnut trees salvaged from a construction site. Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Urban Wood.

    In Milwaukee, they send every tree they don’t want to chip to a sawmill, where much of it becomes usable lumber. The trees then go back into the community as flooring, furniture or some other wood product, Sperber said.

    Smaller communities are also following suit. The entire city of Eau Claire is a member of Wisconsin Urban Wood, which means it has also promised to repurpose trees that are taken down within the city. There and elsewhere, fallen trees are used in parks or sent to high schools’ wood shops.

    As Sperber puts it, there’s always a use for wood.

    “Every story (is) pretty romantic to me,” Sperber said. “It’ll always be meaningful.”

Episode Credits

  • Larry Meiller Host
  • Jill Nadeau Producer
  • Dwayne Sperber Guest