Baltimore created a comprehensive program to collect, salvage, make and sell products from urban wood. You can too.

Wood is an abundant, renewable resource. Yet each year over 78,000 tons of urban wood is wasted in Baltimore alone —about 3,900 truckloads. Throughout the country, more than 28,000,000 tons of urban wood waste is generated annually — from clearing for development, demolition of abandoned buildings, removal of dead or diseased trees.

But when you treat wood as waste, you spend money you needn’t, and miss opportunities you shouldn’t. Baltimore took advantage of these “invisible” assets and moved their community closer to its vision of a sustainable future. You can too.

“We wanted to minimize waste, maximize profit, improve employment, and restore the land and water. It was like putting a giant puzzle together, but we’ve found ways to accomplish all of these things using both salvage and fresh-cut material and we’ve found great partners to work with.” — Morgan Grove, PhD, Forest Service lead social scientist at its Baltimore Field Station.

For a copy of the Urban Wood Workbook, based on the Baltimore experience, click here.