A growing industry in the Valley is giving cut or fallen trees a second life.
"People just don't think of trees that grow in your front and back yard as having beautiful wood inside that you can make things out of," said Rex Condie, co-founder of Wine Glass Bar Sawmill in Phoenix.
Wine Glass Bar specializes in producing what’s known as ‘urban lumber’ – usable wood from city-cut trees.
Condie says there are around thirty arborists in Phoenix that have the ability to cut larger trees often used for landscaping.
“We work with them and it saves them spending money to put the trees in a landfill,” he said.
More and more craftsmen are in search of reclaimed wood to use.
"We take these warm, rustic, natural, live edge wood slabs combined with more angular, clean, modern metal elements,” said Ryan Walsh of Phoenix-based Lumber Lust Designs. Walsh sources his wood from local sawmills’, including Condie’s.
"People are spending [money] carefully and responsibly,” Walsh said. “They want their money to go toward a cause and what they support."
In the three years since they opened, Condie says the sawmill has transformed thousands of trees.
