This is a traditional market where maple and pine rule and opportunities to do something just a little different and classy are  lost time and time again.

Wood: it's beautiful, versatile, diverse, durable, and renewable. It is, in fact, the antithesis of the throw-away society. They say remnants of Noah's Ark may still exist. Wood remains intact in centuries-old historic buildings around the world.

Wood is used practically to fashion homes, churches, offices and every other structure we erect. It makes tools, furniture, recreational implements, boats, aircraft, carts, trailers, and almost every facet of life around us-and has for a very long time.

But is has application as well in art and decor. The phrases "wood-panelled," and "wood-grained" inherently add prestige, and "hardwood flooring" will add value to any home.

Some species can grow for as long as 1,000 years and then its fibre can last for another 1,000 years in a variety of physical manifestations, for instance:

A tree matures in an Acadian forest in Atlantic Canada. It is cut in late maturity and sawn into pieces used in the construction of a small rural church; or a large  barn. Perhaps 300 years later, that church or barn is disassembled and its beams, windows, pews and ornate embellishments are recycled into a modern use-timber framing or large windows for a new home, furniture, panelling, door and window framing and the like.

Such ecologically responsible recycling of wood is the passion of Dan Reagan of Hantsport, NS.  Dan and his wife Kimberley operate a timber framing business, Acorn Timberframe Ltd., and specialize in converting old heritage structures such as churches, and barns etc., into new construction-or, at the very least, confining their use of harvested trees to mature stands cut by selective harvest.

But Dan, with an enduring passionate interest in wood and a formal education to match, also makes artistically-designed furniture, beds, custom staircases, railings, trim, carved interior doors and so on with a company called Elmworks.

This same company has, for instance, salvaged thousands of board feet of moribund elm from the Town of Truro, NS. As insect-borne Dutch Elm disease completes what appears to be the near total decimation of the species in the Maritimes, Dan has been frantically securing the felled timber as fast as his cash flow will allow so it doesn't end up as firewood.

"You would be amazed" he laments, "how much valuable wood is burned for firewood in this part of the world." Europeans and the Japanese, he says, would never countenance such a thing. In nations where wood tends to be scarce, it becomes valuable, and it is sculpted and turned into beautiful things: "We could learn from them." He winces as he speculates how much birdseye maple, for instance, may be inadvertently burned in wood stoves in Atlantic Canada every year-when its alternate use is as a rare and valuable exotic dashboard trim in Rolls-Royces automobiles and other extremely high-end applications.  The by-products of the sawmill industry-those millions of chunks of hardwood that fall to the floor when a log is sawed into straight pieces, are either pushed over a bank or chipped and sold as fuel for commercial heating plants or fireplaces. It is entirely possible, he argues, that a much better use might be found for this undervalued resource.

In this part of the world, he says, the wood fibre in private woodlots is generally just automatically viewed as cordwood and firewood without thought to what treasures may lie in such common species as maple, birch, poplar, hemlock, cedar and spruce.

The elm from Truro is a classic example. This a light-hued hardwood with a distinct grain pattern that can be even further enhanced with a light stain. The finish, for flooring or stairs, is warm, aesthetically appealing and enduring. Yet he has a volumous supply and few buyers. This is a traditional market where  maple and pine rule and opportunities to do something just a little different and classy are lost time and time again.

Even some of the lower grade woods, he says, such as spruce, can provide anomalous features such as curved burls, and so on, that can, in the right hands be fashioned to add unique and delightful accents to any home. Woodworking hobbyists and others, he says, who can render beauty in relatively small volumes of wood, have trouble accessing suitable raw material, while we continue to toss it into wood stoves and fireplaces by the ton.

All it might take, he says, is for someone to act as the broker, access that "waste" wood, grade it,  and resell it at the added value it warrants. Dan proposes to open a warehouse facility in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley later this year to become that broker.