Virginia Urban Wood Group
News & Updates
April 24, 2020 | Issue -1
Welcome!
Welcome to the very first edition if the Virginia Urban Wood Group's newsletter! Our planned schedule is to offer this newsletter every other month, eventually moving to a quarterly schedule. We hope that you find this newsletter useful and enjoyable!

Joe Lehnen
VA Dept of Forestry
Urban Wood Program Coordinator
joe.lehnen@dof.virginia.gov
Upcoming Events
The Urban Wood Network: Future Visioning Webinar Series

Urban Lumber Business
May 13, 2020

What to Do with the Rest of the Tree
June 10, 2020

Click here for more info >> Read More
Service Providers Spotlight

Over the past three years the VA Dept. of Forestry's Urban Wood Program has been developing an interactive Urban and Small Woodlot Forestry Business Directory. The directory now contains 160 businesses that serve the needs of Virginia citizens. This listing of service providers includes portable sawmillers, crafters, forestry mulchers, small parcel timber harvesters & resource managers, furniture builders and many more.

Take a cruise through the directory here >>

Virginia Urban Wood Group Update!
Yes, there is a Virginia Urban Wood Group! Formed in January 2018, the VA Urban Wood Group is presently comprised of a Board of Directors representing private-sector urban wood businesses, public utilities, municipalities, Trees Virginia, Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech University and the Virginia Department of Forestry. The Board has been meeting 3-4 times a year to lay the foundation for this organization.

In the near future the Virginia Urban Wood Group will be open for general membership.

For more information click here >>

Municipalities Leading the Way with
Innovative Urban Wood Programs!
Harrisonburg & Roanoke
featured in Urban Wood Videos
Harrisonburg, VA and Roanoke, VA have two of the more active urban wood programs in the Commonwealth. In 2019, the Va Dept. of Forestry's Urban & Community Forestry and the Urban Wood Programs collaborated on the production of two, municipal urban wood utilization videos. Filmed and produced by DabblePro Inc of Lynchburg, these two videos capture the innovative and progressive urban wood programs of these municipalities.

These media outreach tools were developed for these communities and for resource professionals to promote urban wood programs to other jurisdictions across the Commonwealth. 

The videos are available on VDOF's Forestry TV, via the YouTube format, and can be viewed at the following links:




Thanks!

Many thanks to Trees Virginia (Virginia's Urban Forest Council) for hosting this newsletter and allowing access to their Constant Contact platform!
The Virginia Urban Wood Program is supported by the Virginia Department of Forestry and a grant from the U.S. Forest Service, Southern Region.
The Marketing Corner


 COVID-19 Marketing

During these virus-filled days consider marketing your wood as DIY (Do It Yourself) projects. There are thousands of people stuck at home right now looking for things to do and distractions from everything-virus!

Create some DIY wood project kits, both big and small, that people can finish or assemble. Be prepared to offer shipping or local delivery since most folks are practicing social distancing.

You should also consider short instructional videos on your web page or YouTube on how to finish or assemble these projects

Several urban/local wood businesses across Virginia are reporting record sales for DIY kits over the past few weeks!


Virginia Urban Wood Group