Fallen city trees, milled and kiln-dried in Pittsburgh’s East End.

The Mill, a 10,000-square-foot facility opened in October 2025, turns urban trees that would otherwise be landfilled, chipped or burned into kiln-dried lumber, keeping their carbon stored and giving Crew Members a second place to build skills.

Wood products Donate a log

Inside the sawmill: a craftsman guides a reclaimed city log through the band saw, live-edge slabs stacked behind him

The Mill

A second life for the city’s trees, and a second workshop for our crews.

Responsible Wood Production is Landforce’s newest social enterprise. It creates training and employment opportunities while giving fallen urban trees a second life through kiln-dried lumber and, as the enterprise develops, biochar, ground crew services and related products.

The Mill was built out mostly in-house during 2025. Landforce secured $800,000 worth of equipment, machinery, tools and trucks, installed a lumber dry kiln and a biochar kiln with Pittsburgh Urban Tree, and added three-phase power. The enterprise is led by Edward Johnson, Director of Responsible Wood Products, who brings more than 30 years in sustainable forestry, with Luke Hillegas as Mill Operations Manager.

We never fell trees. The logs we recover are already on the ground or planned for removal by professional tree services, preferably within 15 miles of Pittsburgh’s East End.

A staff member sits beside the orange Wood-Mizer sawmill inside The Mill

Recovery

The trucks that bring the logs in

Landforce secured $800,000 worth of equipment, machinery, tools and trucks for The Mill. Our grapple truck collects logs that are already down or scheduled for removal, and material transportation is one of the services we offer.

Landforce’s white grapple truck lifts a large log section with its crane beside a residential street, patches of snow on the ground — The grapple truck lifts a recovered log curbside.

The grapple truck’s crane swings a log into the white dump body at a wooded recovery site — Loading logs at a wooded recovery site.

A white flatbed truck carrying strapped-down stacks of sawn lumber, parked beside a large white industrial building — Sawn lumber strapped down on the flatbed.

From log to lumber

How responsible wood is made

Recover

Recovery is agreed with the owner and a certified arborist. Our grapple truck collects logs that are already down or scheduled for removal.

Mill

Our sawyer cuts each log on the Wood-Mizer for the best yield, reading grain and defects board by board.

Air-dry

Boards are stickered and stacked to air-dry for months, then checked with a moisture meter.

Kiln

A vacuum kiln finishes the drying so boards are stable and ready for furniture, flooring and construction.

Nothing wasted

Milling waste is set to become biochar, a soil amendment that locks carbon in the ground.

Inside The Mill

From log to board

Two workers in hearing protection guide a freshly cut board off the orange Wood-Mizer sawmill, a forklift behind them — Milling a log on the Wood-Mizer.

Rough-sawn boards stacked flat on a steel rack in a workshop, more lumber leaning against the brick wall behind — Milled boards stacked on the rack.

Stacks of lumber strapped onto a rolling cart at the open door of a large black drying chamber, a worker beside it — Lumber loaded at the kiln door.

A worker in a blue T-shirt straps a stack of sawn boards on a pallet, a large log round in the foreground — Stacking and strapping boards.

Wood products & services

Locally sourced, kiln-dried at The Mill

Inventory changes with the logs we recover. Request a quote and we will confirm what is on the rack, in the kiln or air-drying.

Kiln-dried hardwood lumber

Available

Oak, maple, cherry, locust, sycamore and poplar, recovered within about 15 miles of the East End, air-dried, then finished in our vacuum kiln.