From waste to resource, from ash to reconstruction. In Los Angeles, the trees charred by the devastating Eaton fire will not end up in landfills: a project is transforming them into high quality timber to help residents to reconstruct the pulverized houses. A concrete initiative of circular economy that arises from a wounded community, that of Altadena, severely affected by the flames of last January.
The idea is by Jeff Perry, founder of the Angel City Lumber, who with his “Altodena Mutuality Project” is recovering the trunks of the trees that have burned for over 14,000 acres (more than 5,600 hectares). Instead of being disposed of as waste, they are processed to become quality construction material: floors, fixtures for doors and windows, moldings. All destined for those who have lost their home.
The goal is to produce from one to two million feet-timber (a unit of measuring volume, editor’s note) to be sold at a discounted price to the inhabitants of Altadena, a community of about 43,000 people. It is support for those who have to face the high costs of reconstruction starting from scratch.
The project, however, clashes with the need for greater resources to be able to accelerate production. “We need more help and more resources because we are just a reduced crew,” said Jeff Perry to the Reuters news agency. Although the processing of the first trunks has already started, funds are missing to buy more efficient machinery. “It takes about two months before we receive the machinery we need. So, before we go on with this, first we can start cutting out,” Perry specified, highlighting the urgency to give answers to families.
To make the project even more significant is its symbolic value, embodied by the history of Matthew Burrows, 44 years old. After losing everything in the fire, he contacted Perry with a special request: recovering the wood of a tree to which his family was very close, in order to integrate him into the new home. Burrows described that tree as “part of his family”.
His testimony, collected by Reuters, is a manifesto of the project: “reporting that tree in our lives will only be a constant memory of those wonderful days that have been and the wonderful future that awaits us”. It is this emotional connection that motivates the team. Perry himself confirms that “the link with those particular trees that were their trees is much more amplified, and therefore it is an extra push”.
Eaton’s fire is part of what Cal Fire, the Californian body for fire protection, called “the worst natural disaster in the history of the county of Los Angeles”, an event that forced up to the evacuation of up to 180,000 people. In this scenario, transforming the symbols of destruction into the foundations of rebirth is not only an ecological operation, but a powerful act of community resilience.
Don’t you want to lose our news?
