The guild is proud of the work done to build and sustain this most creative project. Unique in Western Canada, the goal of the program is to intervene when diseased or downed trees are disposed of. Working closely with municipal employees and private donors, we are able to "save" these trees from the fire-pit. The father of this program is Doug Rhodes and with many active guild supporters the program is more active than ever.

Vancouver Island is blessed with a wealth of tree varieties and sizes. Over the past few years we have processed over 25,000 board feet of Pacific Yew, Black Locust, Douglas Fir, White Oak, London Plane, English Oak, Cedar of Lebanon, Cherry, Horse Chestnut, Plum, Walnut and Garry Oak.

The best use for each tree and tree segment is determined and with careful processing, grading, cutting and drying value is maximized.

After our out of pocket costs have been recovered, we donate furniture quality wood to the woodworking programs of Victoria area middle and high schools as well as the Camosun College Fine Woodworking program.

The Wood Recovery Project was borne of the desire to see trees that salvageable parts which are being removed for reasons of disease, damage, age, etc., do not end up going only to firewood.

Every year, municipalities, landscapers, and property owners remove trees that have very good to excellent main trunk and main branch sections that could be milled into useable products for local craftsmen. However, salvaging this wood is not an easy job and it can be costly for an individual.

This is where the Vancouver Island Woodworkers' Guild can help to ensure some of the tree is salvaged and utilized. By working collectively, Guild volunteers can quickly mobilize to retrieve the downed sections and protect them from decay. Then with the support of willing trades people, the wood can be transported, milled, dried and distributed to Guild members who wish to purchase these boards at a little above cost . The extra money made goes to the schools as noted above.

How you can contribute to this worth cause . . .

We’re looking for waste wood for free

• If it has market value, the owner should sell it in the open market
• We are looking for trees that are greater than two feet in diameter in most cases
• If the tree is rare, like Yew, we will take them smaller. For Garry Oak, White Oak, Ash, etc. we like the tree to be a minimum of two feet in diameter

We’ll take the waste parts of the tree that are suitable for woodworking

• We are primarily looking for hardwoods that have straight sections for 4 to 12 feet ( 1 to 4 meters) in length, contain few or no knots, and can be successfully milled into 4 to 16 inches (10 to 40 cm) in width. This requires logs that are usually 24 inches (60 cm) in diameter
• Any questions about types of wood or sizes taken, please call the contact noted at the bottom of this article

We deal with waste parts of trees that are already down and accessible by truck

• We leave the falling and trimming to trained tree service workers
• We enter onto private property only with permission of the owner
• Normally we use a crane truck to move the tree parts from their location to the mill site. This reduces potential damage to the property from which the tree came

What’s in it for the owner (e.g. municipality)?

• Reduced cost of hauling and disposing of the tree parts that we take care of
• Satisfaction that waste tree parts are going to good uses in the community, for furniture or other useful objects
• Good PR for the owner and the municipality

What’s in it for the Guild

• Satisfaction that waste tree parts are going to good use for the community
• Good visibility and reputation in the community for our Guild Wood for our members at reduced financial cost (involves volunteer work)

How We Operate

1. We find out about and take possession of the waste tree parts, and truck them to a safe place.
2. We seal the end grain and otherwise protect the waste tree parts from degradation before milling.
3. When enough waste tree parts have accumulated to make milling and kiln drying worthwhile, we engage a sawmill operator to mill planks and boards for us.
4. Guild members may buy the wood green and take it away at that point – price to cover the costs of transporting and milling the wood plus extra for school donation.
5. We truck the wood to a kiln and dry it.
6. Guild members can buy the wood at that point and take it away – price to cover costs of capture, milling, trucking, kiln drying plus extra for school donation.

We take care of waste at the milling stage (slabs, ends, branch stubs, sawdust) probably by distributing it to members as firewood.

What we need for our startup:

• Agreements with waste tree parts owners (e.g. municipalities)
• Volunteers to act fast to accept material, apply log sealer and arrange transport when contacted about a downed tree
• Cash float to cover operating expenses until wood is sold (operating capital)
• Agreement with the Guild re potential liability, insurance, legalities etc.
• For landowner of our storage location(s)
• For volunteer participants in our operations
• For anyone not covered by insurance carried by our truckers and mill operators

What we need for our operations:

• Trucker(s) with lifting equipment (Crane) available on short notice
• Safe place to store the waste tree parts until we mill them
• Log sealer to apply ASAP to prevent checking and degrade
• Metal detector to find embedded metal and spray bomb/markers to mark location of metal
• Portable sawmill operator(s) willing to work with us
• Trucker(s), or volunteers, to haul the wood to the kiln and return

For more information please contact Wayne Holmes at wgholmes@shaw.ca or call 250-479-4694 .