How Wood Products Actually Help Ecosystems: A Conversation With Amy Shields and Jessica Hickman Fresch
Note: this is a transcript from our recent AHA interview. If you would like to watch the video, check out our content studio page. This interview is also available as a podcast episode – find it here.
Steve Stack:
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Wood As A Renewable Energy Resource
Steve Stack:
Welcome back, everybody, to Studio 3B at Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods. I’m Steve Stack, director of business development. Today, we’re going to have a great conversation with some partners from western Pennsylvania that came to visit us today: Ms. Amy Shields from the Allegheny Hardwoods Utilization Group and one of our business partners and family friends, Jessica Hickman Fresch from Hickman Lumber over in Emlenton. Thanks for coming over today.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
We’re glad to be here.
Amy Shields:
Thank you.
Steve Stack:
We felt it was important to bring you both in with your background and your expertise. We’re going to talk about, and I’m not sure which word I want to use, whether it’s sustainability or a natural renewable resource. I think they cross paths.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
We’re going to talk about anything from the purpose of a forest, the benefits of a forest, harvesting or whether it’s a standing forest that’s been untouched, and why proper forest management is important. Jess, I know your great-grandfather was a little bit ahead of his time in recognizing that a forest needed to be taken care of.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Mm-hmm.
Steve Stack:
And you have some forestry land that you guys manage.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Mm-hmm.
Steve Stack:
Amy, with all of your affiliations within the hardwood forestry industry, we’re going to tap into your thought process.
What Does Sustainability Mean?
Steve Stack:
For folks that don’t understand, what does sustainability reference?
Amy Shields:
Oh, wow. You’re jumping right into the big stuff, huh? Okay. Sustainability actually means different things to different people. If you ask folks inside the industry about sustainability, it’s common knowledge. It means that we do a good job in stewarding the forests. We are taking care of how we harvest, why we harvest, when we harvest, and the manner in which we do it, all with the idea that we’re looking to ensure that there’s a good hardwood forest here for future generations. That’s what sustainability means to most of the folks within the industry. Right, Jess?
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yes.
Amy Shields:
One of the issues that we face with the general public though is that sustainability means something different at times.
To some folks in the general public, sustainability means “I’m choosing a product because it didn’t come from a harvested tree.” Their idea of sustainability means “I promoted not harvesting or using anything from the woods, but from another line of product.” Then there are folks in the general public who understand what sustainability means within the industry, which is good and careful forest management.
Steve Stack:
That reminds me of a fantastic analogy Jess had. It was comparing the life cycle of a tree, its purposes, and the service it provides.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Mm-hmm.
Steve Stack:
You had a couple of examples. In the analogy, you compared it to a field of corn or a garden.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
Elaborate on that a little bit.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah. Within the industry, it’s a crop. Forestry is even in the Department of Agriculture at the state level, because it’s a crop (just a long-term crop). If you’re growing tomatoes or corn in a garden, you harvest it each year. With a forest, you might go in every ten years to pick out the weeds. Then you pick out your mature trees to harvest that are ready to serve an extra purpose. The wood product is then going to last another hundred years. It’s going to outlast a lot of lifespans.
Trees die on their own, so if we use it and pick that tree while it’s ripe and mature, we can utilize that wood. It’s exactly like how you utilize a piece of fruit or vegetable from a garden. Trees are renewable and they’re growing back. In Pennsylvania, I think we’re growing at least three times as many trees as we harvest.
Amy Shields:
I think double.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Double?
Amy Shields:
Yes, that’s our estimate.
Steve Stack:
Say that one more time.
Amy Shields:
Well, the official line is that we are growing back double the number of trees that we’re harvesting on an annual basis. And that’s true. We do have some forest conditions that are causing certain trees or certain varieties of trees to grow back a little more prolifically. So I don’t think you’ll get consensus that even though we’re growing back twice as much as we’re harvesting, we’re not necessarily growing back exactly what we want. We have some work to do there. But yeah, we’re definitely harvesting less than we’re growing and we do have a sustainable, healthy forest.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
There was a UN report that Jonathan Geier references a lot. He works for the Pennsylvania Hardwood Development Council. The biggest threat to Pennsylvania’s forest is actually underutilization. We have a lot of mature forests, so trees are dying at a faster rate than we’re harvesting them.
The cool thing about the forest and one of the reasons that we need them is that trees take in carbon dioxide and give us oxygen. We need forests for that. When you cut down that tree, that carbon is stored. That carbon is stored in this wall, it’s stored in this bench, it’s stored in the doors you make.
If that tree dies and we don’t utilize that wood, carbon’s released back into the atmosphere. That’s the natural process of it. Right now the big thing is reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. By using wood products we are actually keeping carbon stored in a product that’s going to last a hundred-plus years.
Steve Stack:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Plus, younger trees absorb carbon at a faster rate.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
When you cut down a tree, you grow more trees that take it in at a faster rate. You’re still storing that carbon and taking it in quicker by growing younger trees. So, wood products are better than just carbon neutral. They’re a carbon-negative product.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Compare it to the alternative. If you don’t use wood, you have to use something else. You’re going to use a plastic product or another non-renewable resource.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
And that’s terrible for the environment.
Forestry Practices Then and Now
Steve Stack:
You mentioned usage versus what is actively growing. For example, the total acres of forestry in Pennsylvania today versus 150 years ago.
Amy Shields:
Yeah, we have just under 17 million acres of forested land in Pennsylvania.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Pennsylvania was totally clear-cut at one point. That was before there was a sustainability factor. It was clear cut after the civil war.
Steve Stack:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
It wasn’t as much of a hardwood forest. It was more white pine and hemlocks. When they clear-cut that, hardwoods predominantly grew back. We kind of got lucky as a country that we had really great hardwoods growing back. That was just the side effect of it.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
We don’t manage like that anymore. That was back in the day when they were moving west. “Cut some trees in Pennsylvania, we’ll go to Ohio.”
Amy Shields:
Right. We went through a chemical wood era that took out the remaining trees beyond that. It’s clear we have a sustainable model in Pennsylvania with 17 million acres of forest land and the fact that it’s growing back twice as much as we’re harvesting, although we know there’s some nuance to that.
Everything can improve. Every process can improve. When settlers first arrived in Pennsylvania, it was actually 90% softwood forest. It was hemlock, spruce, and pine. They were harvesting all of that for building materials, specifically for ship masks in the beginning. Then it was fueling the building of the country. Then we moved into the era of the tanneries. People don’t realize that it fueled the Industrial Revolution. Back then, all of our equipment was belt-driven.
Steve Stack:
Right.
Amy Shields:
Where did all that come from? They were leather belts that fueled all of that. The tanning era was a huge deal. All of that work led to our forests being basically clear cut and stripped bare. There are pictures where you can see some of the results of that. The last hundred years have been all about conservation and changing the way that forestry is practiced here in Pennsylvania.
Steve Stack:
Our forefathers in this country were some pretty intelligent people.
Amy Shields:
Mm-hmm.
Steve Stack:
They created some of our national forest areas like Pennsylvania and across this country. But now in the past hundred years or so, it’s become a conservative effort throughout the industry to manage forest lands, a renewable natural resource.
The Forest Ecosystem of Today
Steve Stack:
You discussed the Black Forest with the hemlocks, firs, and spruce. What hardwood species does Pennsylvania produce today?
Amy Shields:
We have about 15 different hardwood species growing in Pennsylvania. There are about ten predominant species. Ash, beech, birch, cherry, hard maple, hickory, soft maple, red oak, white oak, and walnut. That’s pretty much the list of our predominant species. Soft maple is actually the highest percentage of our hardwood forests in Pennsylvania. I think it’s about 15% of our hardwood forests.
We’re known in the region, especially where Jess and I are from, for black cherry. Our region used to be called, and is still referred to as, the Black Cherry Capital of the World. We produce about 30% of the black cherry that’s harvested in the United States. But we are number one in quality for a variety of factors, which has a lot to do with our demographic.
Steve Stack:
Cherry has some of the most beautiful, natural, mother nature-given characteristics of a lot of the hardwoods.
Amy Shields:
It does.
Steve Stack:
The natural colorization, the subtleness of the grain, things like that. It’s funny how different regions of the country are recognized for a certain species.
Amy Shields:
That’s right.
Steve Stack:
Like how when you go down south a little bit, we get into the hickories. Go out west, you get some of the premier white oak.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Pennsylvania’s white oak is good, too.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
We don’t have a lot of subspecies of white oak.
Steve Stack:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
It’s mostly the Cornus Alba with the white oak in our area. Red oak is nice too. The tighter growth rings in northern red oak.
Amy Shields:
Yep.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
We’ve got some pretty oaks on our side of the country too.
Education On Wood Energy Production and Sustainability
Steve Stack:
As far as education, we can talk about educating landowners. We can talk about educating the general public. We can talk about educating children, the next generations.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Steve Stack:
What type of programs are you involved in?
Amy Shields:
The Allegheny Hardwood Utilization Group is one of three hardwood utilization groups, or “HUGS” as we’re known in the state of Pennsylvania. We’re affiliated with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. In Pennsylvania, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is mandated to care for the trees and the forest themselves, but the commodity of hardwood falls under the Department of Agriculture.
So I work through the Department of Ag and private industry, specifically in northwestern and north-central Pennsylvania. One of the biggest programs that we work in conjunction with is something called the Pennsylvania Wood Mobile. It’s a traveling exhibit funded by the Department of Agriculture and private industry.
There are contributions of wood products and materials within that van from about 30 different companies in Pennsylvania. We travel the state with that. It’s got everything inside from the history of Pennsylvania’s forests to some really great still shots of property that had been harvested and photographs that have been taken from the exact same spot over a series of 50 or 60 years.
You can actually see the property was cut, but you can see how your hardwood trees will grow back in a carefully managed forest. We have a lot of information in there about invasive species and pests that are after our trees in Pennsylvania. Then you come down the other side of the wall and it’s all about the industry. Who works in the forest products industry, the products we produce, where to get in touch with a consulting forester or logger.
We have a beautiful Martin guitar in the wood mobile that’s made from trees that were harvested from Hurricane Sandy. It’s a really amazing, educational exhibit. In our region specifically, we’ll bring the Wood Mobile in and then do a program called Project Learning Tree. It’s a National Hardwood Lumber Association series of activities that you can do with students of all ages, actually from preschool to high school age.
We do those quite often with school and civic groups. They ask us to do presentations on everything from how trees grow, and how people are involved in that management process, to the function of a tree and the process it takes as it grows. We talk a lot about assumptions and people’s feelings and thoughts on forests and their benefits. We cover a wide variety of topics with people and try to bring awareness to the fact that the forest products industry is very active and concerned about promoting forests, forest health, forest for future generations, and why the products we produce are a key component to forest management.
Steve Stack:
I’ve had the opportunity on a few different occasions to visit The Wood Mobile. It’s a great educational tool.
Amy Shields:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
The way it’s presented is fun, too. Where can they get a glimpse of it? Can they see that on your website, Amy?
Amy Shields:
It actually has its own page on the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture website. It’s a well-loved entity. The schedule is posted for the public so that you can see where it’s going to be. They take it to about 300 or 400 events in the span of a year. A lot of fairs, a lot of festivals and a lot of schools.
Steve Stack:
Jess, you’re the fourth generation, right? You were brought up on sawdust.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah, but I couldn’t wait to get out of Western Pennsylvania.
Amy Shields:
Same with me.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
I was like, “Yeah, it was a good place to be raised.” But I wanted to get to the big city. I studied international business and Spanish. I never thought I was going to be working back in the wood industry, but life brought me back around to it.
I told my dad I’d give him a couple of years and help out. That was ten years ago. There’s just something about being in the industry. It’s easy for me to work with because it’s my family business, which has a lot to do with it. But I never feel like a used car salesman. Do you know what I mean? We’re making a good product, we’ve got something I believe in, it’s good for the environment, it’s a good product for people’s homes. I’m confident in selling it and the industry is full of a lot of good people.
From the contractors, architects, designers, and other people in the wood industry, it’s just a really good industry to be part of. So, I got sucked in.
Steve Stack:
It was a good place to land.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
It was, yeah. I’m very fortunate that I had the opportunity with my family in general. A lot of people don’t have that. We have a new salesman working for us that has no wood industry experience. He wanted to stick around the area. He’s a smart kid, went to a two-year business school, and started selling for us. He’s awesome. It’s great. I can see he’s made friends with contractors, he’s traveled, he’s been to New Orleans to visit, and he gets to do all kinds of cool stuff. It’s just a good industry to be in.
Steve Stack:
Very much so.
Less Energy Consumption For A Smaller Footprint
Steve Stack:
Hickman Lumber and Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods both focus on sustainability. It comes down to the fact that at the end of the day, we want to leave the smallest footprint possible. I know you practice it in your logging operations, sawmill operations, and some manufacturing, as do we. Speaking of that, I want to talk about off-rips.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Mm-hmm.
Steve Stack:
When you have a wood plank and you’re trying to create two parallel lines down the length of the board, you have that little off rip. That’s what it’s called. We use that.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Oh, yeah. Nothing goes to waste.
Steve Stack:
Right. We try to use every square inch of the board from that log. There’s no wood waste.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
From the time the tree is in the forest to when it’s harvested. We even leave the tops of the trees down because that actually protects the saplings. We’ve done studies where we compared little small fences to a tree top that’s left. Deer love to eat oak trees especially.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
We try to grow a lot of oak trees, but deer love them. So we hunt to get rid of the deer, but you keep the treetops down. That helps protect the saplings when they’re growing. That’s why those are left. In the sawmill, the bark is sold to the landscapers. They utilize that. The green sawdust from the sawmill is used as fuel wood to power the dry kilns. The wood chips go to paper factories. Every part of the tree is used. You guys use the scraps in secondary manufacturing, but it also makes wood pellets out of the sawdust for wood burners.
Amy Shields:
Nothing goes to waste.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
It’s too valuable to go to waste.
Steve Stack:
Well, that’s it. It’s a very valuable natural resource. We literally can use everything from that tree.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Everything.
Steve Stack:
100% utilization.
Amy Shields:
Yep.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Mm-hmm.
Steve Stack:
Right? In our business, we use it as a fuel source to heat our facility and dry kilns.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Amy Shields:
That’s right.
Steve Stack:
Nothing goes to waste. Not a lot of natural resources are used to that level.
Amy Shields:
Not to that extent, right.
Steve Stack:
You touched on something, with a little smirk, about hunting the deer.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Well, if you care about the trees, you have to save them by fighting what’s eating them.
Amy Shields:
The deer.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Then we obviously eat the deer anyway.
Steve Stack:
There we go. Talking about all the critters that survive in the forest.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yep. An uneven age managed forest is important to the sustainability factor. When you’re doing selective harvesting, you’re trying to create that uneven age management. There’s all kinds of birds and mammals.
Amy Shields:
Right. It’s like how I was saying that Pennsylvania has some work to do. Because our forests were cut all at about the same time. We did end up with all the trees being the same age. They get to a certain age and then folks start cutting them again. So we do have an issue with even-aged forest management in Pennsylvania, but that tide is turning. That’s one of the continued sustainability efforts that our industry’s really working on.
We’re creating that better mix of young, middle-aged, and old forests. It’s good for the forest’s health. It’s good for the conversation around carbon emissions, climate change, and global warming. It’s good for the industry. We want to make sure that we’ve got a continuous supply of raw material.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
A good supply, yeah.
Steve Stack:
I’m just sitting here thinking about forest management and wildlife management.
Amy Shields:
Yep. They go hand in hand.
Steve Stack:
Right? They work together.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yep. And in Pennsylvania, I think at least 70% of the forest is privately owned, right?
Amy Shields:
Yep.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
A lot of that is being passed down now. It’s like, “Oh, my grandfather bought this property and these woods. Now it’s split up between half a dozen or more grandkids. What are we going to do with this property? Do we sell it? Do we keep it as a forest?” Well, you’re paying taxes on it. It costs money to keep it as a forest. How are they able to afford to keep it as a forest? You’ll get a developer that comes in or somebody who wants to do something. How can you keep that? They own maybe 20 to 50 acres. It’s not a big property, but it’s all mixed up between families. By getting them to manage their forest and add value to it, going in every ten years to take a few out, then give them a check to help with their taxes over the next ten years.
That way, they can keep the land as forest, as opposed to, ” Oh, we need some money. Let’s just sell it to this housing development.” And then it’s clear cut.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
And the forest is gone.
Steve Stack:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Now there’s a paved parking lot over it. Nothing’s going to grow back on concrete, right?
Steve Stack:
Right. It’s gone.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
But if it gets cut and managed, it keeps growing back.
Steve Stack:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
It’s keeping the animal wildlife. That’s where giving value to that tree by having consumers use more wood products is actually keeping more forests as forests.
Amy Shields:
There are also a lot of programs emerging that are helping. One of the terms you’ll hear a lot is “high grading.” That’s when someone goes into a forested area and says, “We’re going to take out everything 14 inches and larger in DBH.” That’s not a process that promotes a good forest going forward. But like Jess said, it’s expensive to keep forest land as forest land. People can be motivated by the economics of it. But having that conversation with a consulting forester or a trained forester really leads the landowner to have a better conversation and learn all of the benefits to owning forest land.
There are programs developing that will assist private landowners in doing a little bit better job of managing those forests. Doing the pruning, going in, controlling vegetation and invasive species, and taking out a few trees to thin the crop. It will lead to a better, more economically beneficial timber harvest at some point. Doing that work on the ground to create that uneven-aged forest, even on that private forest landowners piece, is something that we are working towards in Pennsylvania. A lot of programs are emerging to help forest landowners do that work.
Steve Stack:
I love the word harvest. We’re in the middle of a corner soybean field here.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Steve Stack:
We identify with that. It’s done in a proper way. That tree gives us its life’s span by providing for us and providing for wildlife. Not that we don’t enjoy it when we’re out for a hike going through the woods, but it still serves us even when it’s harvested. Jess, you mentioned the beauty of woodwork and the beauty of the hardwood floor. Speaking of hardwood floors, what kind of benefits does that bring into a home?
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Well, there’s a newer study that I think is really cool and I’ve been interested in a lot. It’s called biophilic design. That’s the idea of bringing natural products into your home. Actually, they’ve done studies that show it’s helping in hospitals. They are seeing that people heal faster. When schools have more wood and natural products, kids pay attention, focus longer, and they’re more creative. So there are actually health benefits.
Amy Shields:
Reduces stress levels.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yes, it reduces stress. Yeah. Maybe it’s not common knowledge, but a walk in the woods will make you feel better. In Japan, they actually prescribe for people that are stressed to go and do forest bathing. That’s just going to spend time in the woods. Their doctors are like, “Hey, you need to take a step back and walk in the woods.” They’re starting to see that when you use wood products in your home, you see some of the same benefits as being out in the woods. It actually helps with your health.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
I’m sure you’ve noticed this. If you’re out on a trade show and there’s a piece of wood there, people come up and touch it. They feel connected to it. They’re like, “Wow, this is real wood.” People just feel connected to it.
Steve Stack:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
There’s just this natural thing. There are more studies that tell us why we get this connected to it and feel these benefits.
Steve Stack:
Whether it’s hardwood flooring, a nickel gap siding wall, or anything else, I remind people that it’s a living piece of wood. It’s porous. It reacts to what it’s exposed to.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
If it’s managed properly, it just keeps giving back.
Amy Shields:
That’s right.
Steve Stack:
Wood processing is our livelihood. It’s one of the easiest things to sell. There’s nothing like the warmth and feel of a true, three quarter inch hardwood floor.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Right.
Amy Shields:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
And how long does it last?
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
I mean, there are castles in Europe that are hundreds of years old with wood floors.
Steve Stack:
Right?
Amy Shields:
Yup.
Steve Stack:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Easily a hundred years for a solid wood floor, if not longer. It’s the same with antique furniture. It lasts.
The Benefits of Wood Products
Amy Shields:
One of the groups that we’re involved in is a national effort called the Real American Hardwood Coalition. It’s a national effort of consumer awareness around the use of wood products for your home and its benefits. It’s focused on how people make that journey as they plan and design a project – why they make the decisions whether to choose a solid wood product or choose an alternative.
The overall goal is to promote the benefits of using solid hardwood products. We did quite a bit of research back in 2020 asking almost 2000 consumers about this. How do they imagine their projects? Where do they get their inspiration for their projects? How do they pick out the design elements that they’re interested in? Overwhelmingly, they were drawn to the beauty of wood. That was already a given. They were drawn to what it looks like, what it feels like, the warmth that it exudes. It came back, almost unanimously, as the gold standard.
Then we asked how they make the final decision on what will be purchased. Well, that’s where we have a departure because the hardwood industry has not kept up with some of the alternative substitute products in promoting durability. It might be porous, but there are still ways that you can make your hardwood product very durable. It is the best value for the dollar because it can be sanded, painted, and resanded. You can find a way to repurpose that and extend the longevity of your product.
The value, the durability, and home health connection was key. People were really drawn to how choosing this product would benefit them specifically. How does it make a safer and healthier environment for my family? A lot of alternative products have resins, give off gasses, and other things that aren’t very safe for your family to be around. Wood products don’t generally have that.
Then, the last piece was that connection to sustainability. We found that it was not a big economic driver for people. They were interested in sustainability, but they weren’t really willing to pay extra for it. If you change that message to really connect folks to their home health, sustainability‘s going to take on a better message that will resonate with people.
Steve Stack:
I think we’re seeing it in this country. There are a lot of great manufacturing companies in the United States. Whether it’s in the lumber industry or a dozen other industries, when manufacturing is involved, people have to appreciate the practices that Hickman Lumber implements.
Amy Shields:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
The practices that some of the loggers and foresters in western Pennsylvania implement. Those same practices that once we receive a load of lumber, we accept that load of lumber and the responsibilities that go along with it.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
That’s how you have to approach it. If we can get enough cheerleaders, right?
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
We never advertise that we’re the cheapest guy on the block.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Steve Stack:
A quality product from a renewable source of energy and a natural resource. I always go back to the word value, so get the pom-poms out.
Amy Shields:
Yeah. This effort is really gaining momentum. Every hardwood-producing state in the country is on board with this effort. We have about 26 or 28 hardwood associations, everything from a regional in-state association all the way up to the biggest players in the game (NHLA, AHMI, Hardwood Manufacturers Association). Everyone who’s anyone in the hardwood industry is getting on board with this effort right now. I really think it’s going to pick up momentum.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Like the “Got Milk” campaign, you know?
Amy Shields:
Yep. Going back to those principles, that research showed that folks were already on board with the beauty of solid hardwood byproducts, but they need convincing when it comes to durability, value for the dollar, sustainability, and the home health connection. We’ve found that for inspiration, they’re looking at social media, Pinterest, HGTV, and This Old House.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
This Old House.
Amy Shields:
We’re going to meet them there with a social media campaign that drives folks to a website where they’ll learn all about the benefits of using hardwoods. We’ve hired a company called Canvas United, which was behind the “Got Milk” campaign. So, these are world-class professionals who are really going to make big things happen in our industry. It’s going to be a really, really great program.
Steve Stack:
That’s one of the reasons why Studio 3B was constructed.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
Education. I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t throw in common sense.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
Right? I mean, generations ahead of us knew you don’t go in and cut an entire forest down. You went in and cherry-picked it. It’s common sense through management and education. Because the three of us survive in this industry with this natural resource, it’s the beauty of the product.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
I think old-timers realize longevity and the value of that especially. It’s like, “Okay, I’m going to build a house and I’m going to build to last.” So many houses are being built now where they’re saying, “How can we build a house that lasts five years and needs everything replaced in five years?” The mentality we have now is just absurd.
Amy Shields:
Yeah, the disposable.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
The disposable, “Oh, okay. I’ll buy some chairs. We’ll just put them to the curb and the landfill in three years.” It’s like, “No, let’s buy something that lasts.” You can pass down, buy used, buy real wood products that last, and then you don’t need as much.
Steve Stack:
It’s like the furniture industry.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
There’s still some nice quality new furniture out there, but if I want a good, quality- built piece of furniture, I’m going to the antique store.
Amy Shields:
Yeah. Or to the craftsmen to have something made custom.
Steve Stack:
Right.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Steve Stack:
The old-timers and old craftsmen were wise. You and I live on it, whether it’s white oak, red oak, quartered rift, right?
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
A lot of those old furniture pieces were quartered and rift, whether it be white or red oak. Why? Because they identified the stability of the product, the longevity of it, and the durability of it. They put their blood, sweat, and tears into that project.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
They knew it was staying together.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
The nice thing about a wood product, especially a wood floor or even furniture, is that you can paint it. You can change the look of it.
Amy Shields:
Yeah.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Styles change and that’s okay. Fashions change, things change, but you can have real wood and change the look of it a hundred percent without throwing away a product. That’s the other beauty of wood; it’s versatile and timeless. This wall is never going to go out of style.
Steve Stack:
No.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
It’s beautiful, right?
Steve Stack:
To your point, we did a splash of paint with a natural wood product beside it.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
They complement one another.
Amy Shields:
Right.
Amy Shields:
They do.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Yeah.
Amy Shields:
If styles change, you can paint this a different color. You can sand it down.
Steve Stack:
Tweak the color, right?
Amy Shields:
Right.
Steve Stack:
Exactly. Well, thank you so much for stopping over today.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
Thank you.
Steve Stack:
I hope you had fun.
Amy Shields:
Yeah, we did. Thank you.
Steve Stack:
I told you it would be easy.
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
We don’t really have a problem talking, do we?
Amy Shields:
We’re good at talking.
Steve Stack:
Ladies and gentlemen, Amy Shields with the Allegheny Hardwood Utilization group.
Amy Shields:
Yep.
Steve Stack:
Jessica Hickman Fresch with Hickman Lumber, proud partners of Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods. Follow along with them. Follow our socials. We’re going to have some more conversations with you guys, okay?
Jessica Hickman Fresch:
All right.
Amy Shields:
Okay.
Steve Stack:
Stay tuned folks, there’s more to come. Thanks for stopping by Studio 3B. See you soon.
For all you folks listening, thanks for talking shop with Baird Brothers Fine Hardwoods. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and wanted to stay up-to-date with the American Hardwood Advisor podcast series, give us a like and subscribe. For more tips, DIY projects, and inspiration, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, read our tweets, or visit bairdbrothers.com. Until next time.
