Photograph by Virginie Drujon-Kippelen
It is a reality hard to ignore: Atlanta is a city of trees. At almost 50 percent, the city has the highest proportion of overall urban tree canopy in the nation. But for all the aesthetic and environmental benefits trees provide to our urban landscape, there is one practical downside: Trees fall, or have to be taken down, and then need to be disposed of from streets and backyards alike. If the wood is of high value, the tree gets a chance at a second life as a useful piece of lumber. If not, it will likely end up in a landfill—the fate of thousands of urban trees every year in and around Atlanta.
For woodworkers Kelly and Ali Syed, this “tragic waste” is what inspired them to act. Sourcing wood has always been part of their story. Shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the couple launched a business making custom furniture and ornamental pieces for customers. The company grew steadily until the second year, when things got complicated. “The cost of wood got crazy because people were doing so many renovations to their home, which also caused issues with the supply chain,” says Kelly Syed. A friend of theirs, Chris Tappan, suggested creating a nonprofit, which would allow them to receive donated wood instead of having to buy it. The trio created the Atlanta Wood Foundation, a unique nonprofit entity amid a vast network of for-profit urban wood industries. In addition to operating a sawmill, they retrieve salvaged trees and process the wood to produce furniture-grade lumber and live-edge wood slabs—always in high demand—which they sell to DIYers, woodworkers, and artisans.
The Atlanta Wood Foundation is a true labor of love, operating on evenings and weekends and between the demands of the owners’ respective day jobs. It relies on wood donations from tree companies, small and big, but also from private landowners, who can get a tax credit based on the dollar value of usable lumber they donate. Since the foundation’s inception, in fact, getting wood has turned out to be the easiest part of the equation: Donations have come in steadily, but finding customers has been more difficult. With time, between word of mouth, social media posts, and traffic to their online store, the foundation is slowly gaining visibility.
The warehouse is far from being a sweet little woodshop. Located in the shadows of I-20, on a speck of Memorial Drive in front of a cell tower, the outdoor space is crowded with large pieces of wood in various states of development. When the weekend comes, the air fills with loud noises emitted by chainsaws and milling equipment. It is inside that the magic happens. After being milled and turned into slabs, the wood is air-dried for two months, then placed in a custom-made dehumidification kiln for two to four months. This drying process is required to avoid warping, cracking, pests, and mold growth. Once the slabs are processed to furniture-grade level, they are stocked, inventoried, and ready to sell.
All the wood is locally harvested from downed trees, and reflects the rich variety of species found in the metro area: red and white oak, poplar, black walnut, hickory, maple, pecan, and more. The foundation plans to eventually open a brick-and-mortar store, but for now, customers can buy directly from the website, which is continuously updated with arrivals of new live-edge slabs and other inventory.
Photograph courtesy of Ryan Clark
One such customer is Ryan Clark, a Decatur-based furniture maker. He recently turned a black walnut log salvaged by the foundation into a handcrafted midcentury table for a client. As a longtime Atlanta resident, he has seen hundreds of fallen trees languishing on the city’s streets, and the sight has always pained him. Being a good steward of the natural environment is important to him, and buying wood from the foundation has added value to his woodworking business. “A lot of my clients like the idea of saving a tree from the landfill,” Clark says.
This article appears in our July 2024 issue.
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