This morning, the plan was to mill lumber using Natural Lands Trust's portable saw mill. We wanted the children to make the connection between the wood products that they use every day, and the trees that these products come from. Many children understand that paper and lumber come from trees, but they don't comprehend that trees were actually cut down in order to make those products. Their gut reaction when they hear a chainsaw is that there is a crime being committed.
Over the years I have milled quite a bit of lumber at Mariton. Trees that blow down or have to be cut because they pose a hazard are generally milled if they are accessable with the tractor, have straight trunks, and are large enough in diameter. We have used this lumber for projects like sheathing the bird blind, paneling the nature center and bluebird boxes.
Using the portable saw mill and a hemlock log (that had been a hazard tree), we demonstrated how boards are cut out of a tree. Then I showed the children the lumber piles from past milling projects. I explained how I stack lumber to allow it to air dry.
Then the kids built little planter boxes from tulip poplar from trees that had blown down at Mariton. The construction process was more difficult than the kids had imagined (another good lesson). In the wooden boxes we added plastic pots, soil, water and sunflower seeds. Following construction, we hiked to the section of woods where the trees had blown down, so the children could see how the forest was responding to this mini natural disaster.
Photos by Carole Mebus.
