Ologies Podcast: Xylology
Jeff Perry stands on a 2nd story landing in the warehouse at Angel City Lumber, with stacks of wood drying behind him. He has close-cropped dark hair, dark-rimmed glasses and wears a grey t-shirt from Harvest Lumber Company. He has some tattoos on his left arm, his hands are in his pockets, and he is smiling toward camera.
What’s the customary 5th Anniversary gift? Apparently… WOOD! So we wrangled our favorite sawmill owner/operator of LA’s Angel City Lumber, Jeff Perry – who rescues downed street trees from the chipper and turns them into beautiful planks, boards, stumps and chonks. We cover everything from forest management to 2x4s, wood grain, burls, bog logs, sawdust, tree disease, asparagus tips, salvaged lumber, kiln drying, Westward expansion, Indigenous forest management, cedar whiff, and how working with wood changes your relationship to death.
Listen via Stitcher, Podbay, Podcast Addict, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Donations went to The Mother Tree Project via this link.
Links to things we discussed:
Laura Zahn, carpenter
Plain sawn, rift sawn and quarter sawn
David Newsome at WildYardsProject.org
Video: Spirit of the Trees: Continuing Traditions (Southwest tribes)
How to spalt wood – on purpose. With beer?
One of a kind lumber from recovered Flathead Lake logs
OLD-GROWTH & SECOND-GROWTH FOREST
Video: Old growth vs. secondary growth
Other lumber source companies Jeff likes:
Lumber Cycle (San Diego, CA)
Alasaw (Birmingham, AL by way of Los Angeles)
Street Tree Revival (Anaheim, CA)
Wood from the Hood (Minneapolis, MN)
Epilogue, LLC (Charbonneau, OR)
Harvest Lumber (Austin, TX)
Treeline (Frogtown/Atwater Village, CA)
Habitat for Humanity the ReStore
Frank Pouwer (Netherlands)
Studies:
“Longitudinal analyses of lignin deposition in green asparagus by microscopy during high oxygen modified atmosphere packaging”
“Free and bound water in wood”
Books mentioned:
Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree”
Shel Silverstein narrating “The Giving Tree”
Dr. Suzanne Simard’s “Finding the Mother Tree: Discoverign the Wisdom of the Forest”
Jared Farmer’s “Trees in Paradise: The Botanical Conquest of California”
William Bryant Logan’s “Sprout Lands: Tending the Effortless Gift of Trees”
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass”
More episodes you might like:
Indigenous Fire Ecology (GOOD FIRE)
Carobology (NOT CHOCOLATE TREES)
Ologies info:
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Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes
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Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media
Transcripts by Emily White of The Wordary
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn