Photo: Ryan Duggan
Photo: Ryan Duggan
When a Norway maple fell on the roof of Roxanne and Mark Junge’s home, the Glenwood couple decided to take care of the tree once and for all. They called Bruce Horigan.
A tree removal service delivered the tree to Horigan’s sawmill in Lincolnshire, Ill., where it was cut into boards and cured in a wood-drying kiln. Horigan then contacted a Shaker-style furniture maker who fashioned the wood into a coffee table for the Junges. “Now, they (sometimes) sit on the tree that once sat on their home,” Horigan quipped.
“I joke that I am the taxidermist of trees,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t like being where I am, but the reality is every tree has a lifespan.”
Horigan started Horigan Urban Wood Products in 2003, having operated a tree care business since 1978. He remains a certified arborist, but his new company specializes in helping people recycle their ailing or fallen hardwood trees into useful and beautiful objects such as heirloom furniture, cabinets, woodwork, shelving, flooring and wooden frames.
Horigan says he has a strong customer base in the Chicago area from his former business, while his more recent enterprise has gained popularity through word of mouth.
Krista Hanson, a Fort Sheridan resident, opted for a fireplace mantle and cabinet doors made from a red oak damaged by construction during the conversion of the military base to residences. The tree was large and probably was standing in the 1890s, when Hanson’s home was originally built for an Army captain. “It’s nice,” Hanson said. “It’s like having a piece of history. It’s special.”
Another customer, a downtown pub owner, decided to have an aged oak tree transformed into a special bar. The oak also provided wood frames for mirrors and counters for the establishment’s bathrooms.
Other clients have ordered handsome shelves and furniture made from their trees. In some cases, the bark is retained for added character. “You can have it as (refined) or as rustic as you want,” said Horigan, who refers work to several specialty carpenters who craft the wood into custom furnishings.
In many cases, plenty of wood is leftover, and Horigan’s lumberyard boasts a variety of hardwoods from Chicago area homes, parkways, business properties — even the McCormick Estate — and other decidedly historic Chicago locations. “The idea is that this is wood grown in the Chicago area, urban hardwood,” Horigan said.
As with any living species, trees young and old alike are vulnerable to disease and harsh weather conditions, and Horigan speculates that this year’s draught could yield a bumper crop of trees passing on to the next life.
Most property owners are sad to lose their trees, but preserving them as functional objects somehow offers great comfort, said Horigan, who besides cutting and curing the wood in his saw mill, coordinates tree removal and sets up the woodworking process.
The whole process of caring for trees opened Horigan’s eyes to an immense local resource — the wood from fallen broadleaf, hardwood trees. In 1990, when Illinois banned green waste such as wood chips from landfills, Horigan began investigating new avenues for tree disposal beyond turning them into wood chips and firewood.
Ash, elm, maple, oak, walnut and other hardwood tree lumber is far more valuable and of a higher quality than the soft pine generally used for construction purposes. That’s why Horigan recommends using fallen hardwoods for special wood projects.
He only harvests trees that are candidates for last rites. “I would never advise anyone to kill a tree to make something out of it,” he said.
“He’s a sincere tree-hugger, a really good guy,” says Hanson, who contacted Horigan originally about saving her red oak. “What he’s doing is really remarkable, a really good thing.”
That’s probably because death in tree care is a hard fact of life. “Part of being a tree person is being a grief counselor,” Horigan says. “I’ve had people cry on my shoulder.”
At first, Horigan’s grief counseling for saddened tree owners consisted of simply suggesting that the clients plant new trees. But he decided to encourage them to consider household uses for the resulting wood, especially after the Illinois ban on green waste in 1990.
Trees take a long time to grow into maturity and turning a dead tree into a useful object also offers an exercise in patience. “It takes three to six months to cure the wood, and then there’s the time needed for the craftsman to complete his work,” said Horigan. “You can’t say to me, ‘Take this wood from my yard in October. I want something made by Christmas.’”
There are other benefits from this practice. Recycling the wood helps to keep healthy trees alive. “Every board foot of wood used in this way saves a board foot of wood that would be cut down in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania (where hardwood is harvested),” he said.
Another positive effect for the environment is carbon sequestering. Not burning the wood or allowing it to break down in mulch prevents carbon from mixing in the environment.
And items made from familiar trees hold strong sentimental value for people who cared for them. “This gives them a way of keeping the tree alive … giving it a new life,” Horigan said.
For more information, call 847-729-1023 or e-mail.
Susan DeGrane is the assistant editor of Conscious Choice magazine.