Can my tree be milled into lumber?
Often, yes. A straight, sound trunk from a fir, pine or oak can be cut into boards, beams or slabs. Whether it is worth milling depends on a few things:
- Size. The log has to be long and wide enough to give useful boards.
- Soundness. Rot, deep cracks and big hollows cut down how much good wood is inside.
- Metal. Yard trees sometimes have nails, wire or old fence staples grown into them, which damage a saw blade. Tell us what you know about the tree.
- Fire damage. A tree killed by fire can sometimes still give good wood under the burned outside, if it is milled before rot sets in.
Robert will look at the logs when he looks at the tree and tell you honestly what they are good for.
Why R2 has a sawmill
The old R2 site said it simply: “We don’t just remove trees, we give them a second life.” It started with the 2015 Valley Fire. The fire left Cobb Mountain covered in dead trees and logs, and the bark beetles killed more. In 2022 Robert was asked to assist in operating a CalFire pilot program burning those beetle-kill pine logs in an air curtain incinerator, a few logs at a time. He kept thinking there had to be a better use for all that wood.
Today that better use is part of every job. In Robert’s words: “If the people want the tree, we take a tree to our mill. We make something for them. It can be a shed, furniture, something like that. All the scraps that are left over from milling get turned into soil or wood mulch that go back onto the trees into the forest.”
Robert also holds a Licensed Timber Operator license through CalFire, and he works the way he believes forestry should work now: selective logging, not clear cutting, taking the dead and dying trees and trying “to bring a tree down without injuring other trees.”
What we can make from your wood
- Lumber. Boards and beams milled to the sizes you need for your own projects.
- Sheds. Small sheds and outbuildings framed and built from milled lumber.
- Chicken coops and dog houses. The old R2 site listed “chicken coops, dog houses, sheds, and more.”
- Furniture. Tables, benches and other pieces from the wood of a tree that meant something to you.
- Beams and posts. Heavy square timbers for a porch, a pergola or a deck.
Every build is talked through one by one, so tell us what you have in mind. If you do not have a tree of your own, ask what milled lumber is available.
How milling a tree works
1. The tree comes down with care. If you want the wood milled, we plan the cuts during the removal to keep the trunk in long, clean lengths instead of short rounds.
2. Logs go to our yard. The skid steer or excavator loads the logs and they go to our mill.
3. Milling. The logs are cut into boards, beams or slabs on the sawmill, and stacked to dry. Fresh cut wood holds a lot of water, and it has to dry before it can be built with for most uses, so plan on that time.
4. Pick up or build. You take the lumber home, or we build your shed, coop or piece of furniture from it.
What moves the price of milling and builds?
- How many logs and how big. More and bigger logs mean more time on the mill.
- What you want cut. Simple boards, heavy beams or wide slabs.
- Moving the logs. Hauling from your property to the mill and back.
- The build. A small coop and a full shed are very different jobs. Design, size, roofing and finish all matter.
- The wood itself. How much good lumber the logs actually give once they are opened up.
Ask when we come out for the tree, and we will talk through what the wood could become and what it would take.
Full circle, start to finish
Milling is the middle of R2’s loop. The tree comes down carefully. The good wood goes to the mill and comes back as something you use every day. The scraps, sawdust and slab edges go to mulch and soil, which goes back onto the land and into the forest. “We’re like completely full circle,” Robert says. “Nothing goes to waste.”
It is the same idea as everything else R2 does, from fire clearing to hauling logs: the wood is a resource, not trash. “Good people who do good work! Sometimes its all about community!” one neighbor wrote.
Tell us before the tree comes down
The best time to plan for milling is before the first cut. A tree that is going to be milled is cut differently: the trunk is kept in long, straight lengths, and the crew is careful not to split or shatter it when it comes down. If the trunk is cut into short firewood rounds, the chance is gone.
So if there is any part of you that would like a table, a bench or a shed from a tree you are losing, say so when Robert comes out to look at it. He will tell you whether the wood is good for it, and plan the removal around it.