Transforming Lives With Trees

Tree Trust has three core focus areas that guide our work every day and inform how we best serve our community — Pathways to Careers, Planting Trees, and Partnership. Tree Trust is contracted by the City of Roseville to remove condemned ash trees infested with emerald ash borer (EAB) and re-plant a diverse variety of disease resistant trees. Many of the urban trees we fell are recycled into wood chips. Other ash trees can be repurposed. One local shop teacher with a passion for woodworking — and a dream to teach students to craft from log to lumber, is excited to transform urban ash trees into usable materials that will be available for student projects.   

Jeffrey Davies teaches Career and Technical Education classes at Roseville Area High School, (RAHS) in a state-of-the-art facility. Some of Davies’ students are working on constructing a wooden canoe while others explore cabinetry or build barrel saunas. Clearly, Davies’ joy of woodworking is inspirational to his students, many of whom choose to spend free time in his shop polishing up projects.

This March, Davies and his class of wide-eyed youth watched in awe as Tree Trust’s Landscape Services team skillfully delivered a shipment of logs with their industrial grapple boom truck — imagine a giant arcade-game-claw lifting huge logs from a truck, one-by-one, and stacking them on the ground. Davies has a Wood-Mizer portable bandsaw mill that he will teach students to use as they work together to mill these logs into lumber, a truly unique experience. 

Can you share a little bit about your journey into the skilled trades?  

It goes back to growing up and being outdoors a lot. I think that’s my connection to trees. Growing up we burned wood to heat our house. We were out on the weekends cutting wood, hauling wood, and splitting wood, so it’s just in my blood. From there, my next connection would be my high school shop teacher Mr. Schmidt. He had a huge impact on my life. That’s really where I was able to be passionate about building things. We had a program where we would go out for the afternoon and build a deck at a job site. That’s where I learned stuff that was practical for me. That’s what I excelled in. 

What is the first thing you crafted or built out of wood?  

I would have to say it would have been a fort in the backyard. I remember me and my buddy Phil up in the tree hammering boards together in second grade, [and then] the pinewood derby car from scouting. 

What benefits are there for young people to learn through hands-on activities like carpentry?  

I think it touches on a lot of different areas, certainly problem solving. I mean that’s what you run into no matter what you are building or creating – you always run into problems. It doesn’t go easy, so you are constantly troubleshooting. And that’s life. I think it’s important to acknowledge the leadership at RAHS, from our Superintendent, from our school board and the support from the community. They have made the decision to support and invest in Career and Technical Education. The variety of opportunities our students have because of it makes us unique in the state and probably the country. There was, and still is, a time when skilled trades programs have been completely cut from high school curriculums. I believe that is a disservice to a whole bunch of students. RAHS has chosen to educate all students for the future. This country will always need people that can build things. 

Please share your story about how you acquired a mill for your shop class.  

I had a student who passed away in a motorcycle accident the day before graduation. It was a tremendous loss for his family, the community, [and] the high school. His name was Declan Raverty, and his nickname was Duck. So probably the honor of my career, his parents asked me to deliver a eulogy at his memorial service. That was a profound thing for me to be able to do that. I also made his urn. We were very close; he was like a little brother. [Duck’s parents] wanted to donate a piece of equipment to the wood shop because he was always in the wood shop. They wanted to donate a piece of equipment in his honor. I decided to get a lumber mill. I know Duck would have absolutely loved that.  

Any idea what projects you and the students will create with the recycled wood?  

The first project is to build a solar kiln. You have to let [lumber] dry [before use]. It’s time consuming if you air dry it – you are looking at least a year. It’s a commitment. A solar kiln would allow us to decrease that year by a great deal.  

The other thing that we will be getting into now that we have access to this ash is timber framing. I don’t know if I will call it a lost art, but it is just a different type of construction. It’s very visually pleasing to the eye. I have some students this trimester that are milling logs now so they can do a timber frame bench. We are just starting to scratch the surface with timber framing. And like I said, without those logs we would not be able to do that.  

We are grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with Jeffrey Davies to transform lives with trees. Tree Trust is excited to see what the students at RAHS construct with recycled wood. We can’t wait to see these ash trees worked into beautiful serviceable projects. To view the amazing footage of the ash log delivery, please visit our YouTube channel where you have the option to subscribe to our channel and stay in touch!