Spring is Springing

Black Locust via

The early signs of spring are upon us, and we are beginning to smell the sweet fragrance of budding blossoms. If you hail from Pennsylvania down to Alabama, then it may be one budding blossom tree in particular the Robinia Pseudoacacia or more commonly know as, black locust.

The black locust is a tree that has been in our history since the beginning. As part of the Fabaceae family, it is native to the southeastern United States but grows everywhere from Pennsylvania to Alabama to Wisconsin. It favors the Appalachain chain region as well as the Ozark Plateau for the humid climate and the sandy, loamy, well-drained soils in open sunny locations. The tree itself reaches heights of anywhere from 30 to 80 feet with a diameter of about 3 to 4 feet. A young black locust has a more green bark while the older locusts have a dark, deep, and shaggy bark.

The black locust wood is extremely durable and rot-resistant, two reasons that generation after generation have utilized this special wood. Originally the black locust wood was used to make fence posts and wagon wheels. Farmers began planting small groves of the black locust trees on their farms so as to utilize the wood in the coming years. Black Locust trees grow at a rate of a quarter inch per year, so it was not long before the farmers could be using their trees.

Here at Black Locust Lumber and Citilog we use this 17th century business model in our day to day work. We find that by incorporating our natural resources and power into todays world it helps to keep with the ways of our ancestors and to keep this planet healthy and alive. You may ask yourself how do we do this at a small lumber company in New Jersey of all places? Well we use real horse power (Buck and Bill) to remove the logs from the sites and use a system called upcycling with your trees. Upcycling entails that we take your wood that would have been tossed and turned it into a finished product. We try and use as much as possible so not to create waste. Where as our ancestors were using black locust wood to create fence posts, wagon wheels, and railroad ties, we have now expanded to using it for everything from decking, seating, siding, trellises to speciality projects like garden applications and sun baffles.

That is just a brief little synopsis on the black locust wood. With Spring in the air things around the office are really starting to pick up. It is proving to be an exciting new year!

So get out there and enjoy the earths rebirth, renewal, and regrowth that is Spring. Keep your eyes open for a black locust tree, you never know where you might find one!