Working with logs from ecological thinnings, we mill, kiln dry and finish wood for flooring, paneling, trim, posts and beams, siding, live edge slabs and other custom orders - what is known as Appearance Grade lumber.
We first milled island trees into local lumber in 2004 when logs from the thinning of Agren Park were milled into the Hardware Store Restaurant’s deck as well as other island projects. Lumber milled from the Vashon Island School District’s forest enhance the new high school. Live edge slabs cut from local hardwood trees can now be seen at the Vashon Center for the Arts, the Vashon Brewing Community Pub and the soon to open Wild Mermaid – the bar and restaurant at the north end.

Everyone uses wood in one form or another. And most of that wood comes from industrially managed forests which are often clear-cut and use chemical sprays. Management techniques we generally wouldn’t use on our own property or want our neighbor to use. Other wood comes from tropical forests in South America or from Indonesia where management may be poorly regulated and where lumber must be transported halfway around the world with oil and gas.
Our way has always been to look to our own forests. To care about their good stewardship: to manage them for wildlife, for ecological function and the island’s sole source aquifer, for aesthetic and recreational values, and to fulfill some of our community’s wood needs.
Please help us save the mill yard.
Copyright 2015 Vashon Forest Stewards