NYC Tree Salvage and Wood Reuse: Building a Circular System and the Metro Hort Community’s Role

MHG Meetings

Sponsored By: Metro Hort Group

Thursday, October 9, 2025

Location: In-person at the Arsenal
The Central Park Arsenal
Fifth Avenue and 64th Street
Third floor: The Arsenal Gallery

Doors open for refreshments at 6:00 pm
Meeting begins promptly at 6:30 pm
General meetings are free to Metro Hort members. No reservations are necessary.
Guests are welcome to attend for a $20 contribution

Sara Evans, Director of the Living Collections and Curator at Green-Wood with Alexander Bender, founder and managing partner at Tri-Lox, and Liz Zink, Creative Director at Tri-Lox.

The New York City urban forest includes over seven million trees, generating substantial wood waste from routine removals, storm damage, and development projects. Currently, this valuable material contributes to an overwhelmed waste stream and feeds greenhouse gas emissions. This panel, featuring Sara Evans of Green-Wood and Alexander Bender and Liz Zink of Tri-Lox, explores how to divert local wood from the waste stream and transform it into a resource for our design community and our city. The conversation focuses on circularity and sustainability that supports both the management and expansion of our urban forest, as well as local landscape design projects.

We’ll consider how tree salvage fits into a more sustainable system of land stewardship and urban forest management. The goal is to have a thriving, expanding urban forest with tree care that keeps trees in the ground for as long as possible and, in turn, a proactive plan for how to sustainably manage the trees at the end of their lifecycle. A management plan that includes salvage will reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions while also giving our trees a new purpose even after they are no longer part of the canopy.

Transforming wood for reuse is a time- and labor-intensive process but, ultimately, there is an expansive potential portfolio of uses for the wood from trees. We’ll discuss the process of turning salvaged trees into wood products and the role that designers play in finding creative ways for this underutilized wood to be incorporated into projects across the city. Not only that, but tree salvage and wood reuse is part of a larger mission of more sustainable organic waste management. In addition to salvaging wood for lumber, other opportunities include logs for urban farming applications, biochar, mulch, and compost. The panel will explore how the Metro Hort community can contribute and benefit from developing these pathways to reuse.

Sara Evans

Alexander Bender

Liz Zink