According to David Stine, owner of David Stine Furniture, the answer isn’t so simple.
“Like a lot of things, it’s a little bit more complicated than you might think,” he says.
One reason trees felled by the tornado aren’t great candidates for furniture-making is that their species isn’t always up to the job. Stine estimates 60 to 70 percent of city trees are species, such as pin oak and ginkgo, that aren’t amazing for lumber. “They’re great for shade and that’s why they planted them,” he says. The most sought-after trees, think white oak, some red oaks, some ash, and Osage orange–exist locally but can be problematic for a variety of reasons…