‘A lot of lumber here’: Trees cleared for development being repurposed as custom furniture and more

Beyond huge piles of concrete and asphalt debris at a site being cleared for development in Wauconda, a two-man crew has begun repurposing parts of the landscape that have been lost.

Included is the enormous trunk of a white oak tree 4 feet in diameter and 22 feet long. It’s one of about 20 oaks and one locust tree selected by Adrian Plante, president of Wood Urban Design Group in Crystal Lake, to live on as handcrafted furniture, accessories and other custom-made pieces.

“It’s definitely 270 years old. It’s one of the biggest oaks I’ve ever seen,” said Plante, a carpenter by trade. He started the company in 2017 to make more of old growth trees than firewood.

“I’m hoping to get eight tabletops,” he said of this particular oak. It was one of two — the other about 36 inches in diameter — that a since demolished bank on the site literally built around to afford customers a nice view.

“What was neat was they built the building around the trees originally,” said Plante.

“And they survived,” added Gary Wendt, senior vice president with The Bradford Real Estate Companies, who visited the site with Plante this week.

Bradford is preparing the front half of a 9-acre site closest to Route 176 for two to three quick-serve restaurants and the extension of Brown Street.

The debris from parking lots and traffic lanes from long-gone users will be crushed and reused as a base for what’s to come. But because of the topography the existing trees could not be preserved, according to the company.

The bank building was demolished and about 65 trees recently cleared to start site preparation, which is expected to continue for several months.

“I tagged all the ones I thought were worth saving,” Plante said. “But the majority were dying or dead.”

Some with hollow trunks will be prepared for use at nature playgrounds.

Plante set up his largest portable saw mill and plans to be on-site for about a month cutting the trunks into slabs.

“There’s a lot of lumber here,” he noted.

The big oak will be saved for last and require “the biggest chain saw you can legally buy” to process. It has an 8-foot bar and requires two people to operate. Those slabs are expected to weigh about 1,000 pounds, Plante said.

Plante has an arrangement to provide finished pieces as needed for businesses in the development.

“We certainly embrace the act that they will be able to repurpose old growth trees into unique tables, furniture and the like,” Wendt said.

Getting to that point isn’t quick as the lumber will need a year or more to air dry to a usable level, Plante said.

There is no shortage of business as Plante has connections with tree services, developers and others. Word gets around.

He repurposed heritage trees at Dole mansion in Crystal Lake. Lumber milled three years ago from a 36-inch diameter elm tree were just delivered to a home in Park Ridge as a dining table, coffee table and blanket chest.

Plante said he milled 30,000 board feet of lumber used by the Lake County Forest Preserve District for a 2022 refresh of facilities at the Edward L. Ryerson Conservation Area in Riverwoods. And so on.

The only piece in his own home is the first piece he made — wall art that hangs over the television — from the first walnut tree he ever milled.

“I’ve got a lifetime of trees in my yard I'll never get to,” he said.

Concrete and asphalt will be crushed as a base for roads and other uses on-site. Mass grading will follow. Tree branches and debris is being removed and, in a few weeks, the site will look much different, Wendt said.