There is an abundance of urban wood in any city that ends up in a landfill or is underutilized. With our large and very mature canopy on UK campus trees are needing to be removed for many reasons, but life/health/safety take priority. 

The cross-campus collaboration between Forestry, Architecture, Fine Arts, campus Arborists, the Office of Sustainability and others continues to make strides in utilizing trees that must be removed for public safety and construction purposes. The Campus Wood Program features a Lucas slabber and swing-blade sawmill under a pavilion constructed from campus wood and wood inventory storage within Vaughn warehouse #5. 

The collaboration has been featured multiple times for the educational and novel wood use outcomes and deliverables over the last 7 years. Recent funding allowed for the purchase of a vacuum drying kiln on campus to improve sustainability of the system and allow wood from campus trees to be dried on campus for use in the classroom by students, faculty and staff. 

The Campus Sawmill now has its own sign and address. The living laboratory and student experiences from this program have been immense, but the real benefit and cost savings is at the operational level for the University. In addition to saving the University money, we are upcycling wood material into functional long-lived wood products, storing carbon, reducing the University's carbon footprint and greatly improving efficiency.