The Alder, Maple and Birch Trees Used in the Construction of all our Log Furniture is Environmentally Friendly

Red Alder

When first peeled, red alder is a pure creamy white, but the natural tannins in the wood quickly react with the air to change the colour to a beautiful rich red-brown tone seen in the live edge and full rounds used in making furniture. Time and light will soften the red hue and add a warm gold tone. It is these natural wood colours that give red alder its unique character and beauty.

Alder is a broad leaf deciduous tree, which makes it a hardwood, but the wood of the tree is actually similar in density to the coniferous softwood pine, and like pine this is a wood that shows its history with the accumulation of subtle marks from years of use. The alder is importance to the ecosystem as the first tree to grow after a fire or logging and it is vital for the regeneration of the evergreen forest. Alder is one of the few plants to add nitrogen to the soil, and almost all other commercially important trees need this nitrogen to grow.

The fast growing and abundant red alder tree is the ideal material for many of the Catkin Loop log furniture designs. It grows in dense thickets that are thinned in the collection process, the thinning creates more room for the remaining trees to grow and mature. The Alder is short lived for a tree and reaches maturity after about 60 years. The wood of the alder tree rots quickly, which in nature, renews the soil for the longer living evergreen forests that grow in its path.

Broad Leaf Maple, also called Big Leaf Maple

On the west coast the large broad leaf maple tree is the best example of Canada’s noted symbol. It is the largest maple tree in Canada and has the largest leaf. The western maple wood is not quite as hard as the eastern sugar maple, but the close grain of broad leaf maple has spectacular colour and shows many of the prized characteristics of its eastern cousin.

The maple is a common tree but tends not to grow in large groups in the areas Catkin Loop uses to collect wood. It is also a fairly slow growing tree and to preserve this beautiful tree all maple collected by Catkin Loop is from mature, wind fallen trees. The truck of the large broad leaf maple is often covered in moss, and with the wide canopy of the trees shadowing the forest floor it provides a green and dark brown look typically associated with the coastal rainforest of British Columbia.

The wood of the broad leaf maple is a pale brown getting darker toward the heartwood. The selection of only wind fallen trees results in some additional characteristics in the colour of the wood ranging from light gray to an effect called spalting. The highly prized spalted wood has a thin black line following the grain pattern and caused by a mould.

Paper Birch

More noted for its bark than its wood, paper birch, like alder, tends to grow in young forests. The wood is hard and heavy with a beautiful fine grain. In the forests where Catkin Loop collects wood, the birch is not as common as red alder and broad leaf maple so it is less often used in our log furniture.

A short lived tree, birch grows quickly in burnt or logged clearings, but general lasts only one generation before evergreen trees crowd out the birch and regenerate the evergreen forest typical of BC. Like maple, the sap of the birch is sweet and can be boiled down to make syrup.

 

Using only BC grown hardwood, as close to their natural form as possible, Catkin Loop Fine Rustic Furniture brings a sense of the forest into the home.