June 13, 2011—Landscape Forms, North America’s largest designer and manufacturer of site furniture, has partnered with a sustainable wood distributor representing Amish loggers to supply black locust wood on all but a few of its wood products, according to the company. The exceptions are those having unique material or dimensional requirements. Weathering characteristics of the black locust wood have been tested on benches on site at the company’s Kalamazoo headquarters. All products carry the Landscape Forms three-year warranty. In addition, the distributor makes black locust available with FSC certification.
Most of Landscape Forms’ black locust is sourced within 500 miles of the company’s manufacturing facilities, often from sites being cleared for other purposes. The wood is selectively harvested, using teams of horses where required by the terrain or requested by the customer, and milled into boards in small mills. The boards are air and kiln dried and graded to Landscape Forms quality standards by a certified wood grader. One hundred percent of the tree is used, much of it in furniture-quality boards. The remainder is used to make trellises and parquet flooring. Bark and waste are used for mulch and biomass fuel.
Common in the Midwest, Appalachia and Northeast regions of the United States, black locust is a thorny, wild tree that grows as a “volunteer.” Relatively few wood species have the strength, durability and weathering characteristics required for furnishings in outdoor public environments, but black locust meets these criteria and more, says the company. Not only is it fast growing, regenerating on its own after cutting, it is dense and durable. (Fence posts have been known to last 100 years.) The wood also has a natural resistance to insects, microorganisms and rot and decay.
For more information visit the Landscape Forms Web site as well as its FMLink ad.
