About San Diego Urban Timber

San Diego's finest wood, repurposed.

Trees are just about the best thing known to humanity. In addition to being wildly beautiful, they are crucial to our every fundamental need. Air, water, housing--you name it, trees give it. Unfortunately, humanity has treated them horribly. When deemed unsuitable for their placement, trees are cut down, chopped to bits, or thrown in the dump.

Who's Been Building With Us

The Crew at San Diego Urban Timber is Committed to Doing Fallen Trees Justice.

We’ve gotten all sorts of interesting feedback about our “logging in the middle of the city” business. One was the name. We were told it should be called “Urban Lumber.” But lumber evokes a vision of aisle after Home Depot aisle of yellow wood. Timber is the truth. Our trees are either cut down (by someone else), or they fall down. Sometimes they’re 8 feet in diameter and 100 feet tall. Their presence is remarkable in an urban environment. That’s why we’re San Diego Urban Timber.

Our operation formed out of the realization that urban trees generally have a tragic life cycle, and most folks have no idea. Wood: just another generic commodity.

But maybe grandpa planted that tree. Maybe your dad built a tree house in it. Maybe your kids climbed on it. Or perhaps, it is among the last remaining trees in a local canyon; beetles having taken the rest of the grove. Well, then it starts to get personal for folks, and the fact that it may end up in a landfill is heartbreaking. Once people understand this, they feel a palpable loss, and a call for change erupts. That's what we're counting on, at least, because it's personal for us too. Like it’s in our DNA. Maybe we were trees in another life, who knows, but in this life we are furniture makers and wood stewards. It’s a calling, and we answer.