Ash Utilization Options Project of Southeast Michigan

The Solution: Ash Utilization Opportunities

The Southeast Michigan RC&D Council hopes that the surplus of waste wood created by the EAB infestation can serve as a catalyst for the state's municipalities and businesses to develop sustainable programs for recycling wood residues. As a first step toward this goal, RC&D is funding three projects to demonstrate how EAB-impacted ash trees can economically be used to produce lumber, railroad ties, flooring, paneling, and a variety of other wood products:

• LaMont Brothers Tree Service,
• Last Chance Logs to Lumber, and
• Michigan State University's Department of Forestry.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture similarly is encouraging alternatives in ash utilization at the EAB Disposal Sites. Large sawlogs from the sites are being processed into tool handles (by Emerald Mills Inc.) and railroad ties (by LaMont Brothers Tree Service). All other materials are chipped and used to produce electricity at Genessee Power Station or used to provide landfill cover at Riverview Land Preserve.

For more information about successful urban wood utilization programs in other regions, please see the following resources:

• "Utilizing Municipal Trees: Ideas from Across the Country" (Bratkovich, 2001),
• "Recycling Municipal Trees: A Guide for Marketing Sawlogs from Street Tree Removals in Municipalities" (Cesa, Lempicki, and Knotts, 2003), and
• "Harvesting Urban Timber: A Complete Guide" (Sherrill, 2003).

A project of the Southeast MI RC&D