GREENMI – A unique spin on recycling; snow fences offer premium reclaimed wood!

Reclaimed wood is always a great thing to utilize.  If your anything like me, you probably see using reclaimed wood as an inspired act.  You could even make the argument that it is essential in any green home.

One Wyoming company, Centennial Woods, utilizes old snowfence planks as beautiful reclaimed wood.  I was really pretty surprised to hear about what they are doing…

…Kind of a “that makes too much sense not to do” kind of thing.  Anyway, the wood reclaimed from the snowfences looks pretty amazing, I must say.

The reclaimed wood from the siding has a very unique look to it.

The wood has a very unique look as it has been weathered for years in the frigid Wyoming winter wind.  I love the weathered look…

The furniture you could have made from it would look great, but what I really like is the siding.

I spoke with a representative of Centennial Woods named Kyle Henriksen.  He was cool enough to answer these questions for me:

• How many snow fences are there in Wyoming?
  • Wyoming has close to 300 miles of snow fence.

Snowfences are a basic necessity in Wyoming.  With over 97million square miles and only 544K people, not many trees, and never-ending wind, there is really nothing to stop the snow from blowing across the state and forming drifts wherever they want.  Wyoming has several major interstates and railroad routes and it costs the state and private companies a lot of money to continually plow the transit routes; also, creating huge amounts of emission from the plows and machinery used in the clearing process.  We dictate where the drifts occur and herd the snow just like the cattle we have out here!

What is the environmental impact of these old fences and the reclaimed wood from them?

In the past, once the wood on the fences was too dilapidated to be effective, it was torn down and

A solitary Wyoming snowfence, ripe for it’s reclaimed lumbeput in a landfill or burned. We are happy to give it a wonderful second life!

To date, Centennial Woods has turned 6 million linear feet of Wyoming snow fence into reclaimed wood.

This is roughly the equivalent of about 105 miles.  Pretty amazing stuff, right?

Here’s the best part of this reclaimed wood:

It also is helping to keep more than 10,000 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere and saving the state of Wyoming and other entities more than $10 million.

Here are a few more questions Keith answered for me about the reclaimed wood…

• What can people use the wood for?
  • The use of the reclaimed wood is limitless and really up to the imagination of the designer, builder, homeowner, etc.  Most often, the wood  is used for siding, soffits, trim, flooring, ceilings, ceilings, wall paneling or wall features, cabinetry and even furniture!  We love when our customers get creative with our product and always encourage them to share their projects with us.
• What is the Vision & Mission statement of your organization.
  • Centennial Woods’ mission is to continue its industry leadership and growth in the reclaimed lumber and flooring market, providing customers the premier option for beautiful, naturally weathered wood that is sustainably harvested and free of lead and arsenic based paints/treatments and VOC off-gassing.

Reclaimed wood siding…

This is an absolutely fantastic company.  First off, I get some of the best looking, natural wood available.  They save tax dollars; they save the state; and their based exclusively upon recycling and reclaiming wood!  My kinda company…