Making the Most of Our Urban Resources
Urban Wood is wood from urban forests. Trees face a variety of challenges when growing in an urban environment, often coming with unique shapes, sizes and grains that make them desirable for designers and makers of special wood products. Urban wood comes from these trees that die of old age, diseases and pest infestations, or which need to be removed for safety or development reasons. In many cases this wood is considered a waste and its disposal is a cost to the homeowner or to the community; but this does not always need to be the case.
LEAF worked with the City of Toronto and other key stakeholders to increase the utilization of wood from urban trees in Toronto and Southern Ontario. This Urban Wood Utilization Initiative sought to encourage the salvaging and re-use of what we consider a valued urban resource to celebrate the intersection of urban and natural, create unique Toronto wood products and recognize the value and importance of urban trees to our city and its residents.
This section of the LEAF site was supported by the City of Toronto - Economic Development & Culture and provides the resources developed as part of the initative.