When dead trees fall in Baltimore, the city doesn’t pay thousands of dollars to dump them in landfills like some cities do. The trees are transported to a sorting and recycling facility that turns the old wood into furniture, flooring and other products.
The facility makes money for Baltimore and has become a model for other cities. But Shaun Preston, who runs the site, called Camp Small, said it might have imploded without operational research support from U.S. Forest Service scientists based in the agency’s office in Baltimore.
“When this program started, the U.S. Forest Service was right there to offer expertise to help us with research, to help develop ideas,” said Preston. “And then the Forest Service was like, let’s look at how we can grow Camp Small and take it to the next level.”…