Recycling Kohl?s Trees

The Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, off Arkansas 265 in Fayetteville, plans to build a 3,000-SF timber-frame structure in October with 30 logs from the construction site of Kohl’s department store in Fayetteville.

Maryetta Carroll, administrator for the botanical garden, said the timbers were donated by Michael Langford, a carpenter who does buisiness as Boston Island Boatworks.

Mostly post oaks, the logs are 12 to 20 feet long and average 30 inches in diameter, Langford said.

Carroll said the logs will be added to another 30 from Sweetser Properties and a few donated by the Fayetteville Public Library to build an office and classrooms for the garden.

After the logs are milled, a workshop will be held in October to do the mortise and tenon work to assemble the structure. Construction should take two weeks.

Carroll said the Fayetteville Advertising & Promotion Commission gave the botanical garden $45,000 toward the construction, and it will probably cost another $25,000 to complete.

Mary Lightheart of Goshen held a demonstration in one of the trees at the Kohl’s site in 2000 to try to prevent removal of the grove. Ultimately, 51 trees were removed from the site to make way for construction.

Langford said the logs were given to him by Argus Properties after their removal from the site.