Sustainable construction turns forest to frame

NORFOLK —Brian Donahue and his wife built a house in rural Gill, Massachusetts using wood from their own land and local artisans, loggers and foresters.

From this experience Donahue wrote a book, “Slow Wood: Greener Building from Local Forests.”

Donahue was interviewed by Great Mountain Forest executive director Mike Zarfos at the Norfolk Library Sunday, Oct. 5, as part of the Haystack Book Festival.

Donahue is professor emeritus of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University.

Zarfos started by asking why he left the Boston area.

“The plan was always to leave,” he said, adding that it took a lot longer than he anticipated.

“It was a series of five-year plans.”

The Donahues, with some friends, chipped in and bought a substantial property in Gill, of which 50 acres of grassland is devoted to beef cattle and produce.

The friends took over the existing farmhouse and the Donahues started from scratch.

The goal (and end result) was a timber frame house made from the trees on the property.

Freely acknowledging he is not a forester nor a carpenter, Donahue said he relied on local talent to decide which trees to cut and how to cut them.

Everything that could be done locally was done locally. Donahue described a chain of loggers, carpenters, sawmill operators and assorted artisans who had a hand in the building of the house.

This was by design as well.

Donahue said that by following his path, development in New England can proceed in a way that is ecologically responsible and that provides employment.

“If you have the resources,” he added.

Donahue talked about “ecological forestry.”

“It’s the current term of art,” he said. The idea is that as trees are cut, the primary consideration is the ecological value of the activity, not the bottom line financially.

So while the white pine on the property was more valuable, other less prized species such as hemlock were excellent for building purposes.

“So we sold the pine.”

There are drawbacks to this approach to forest management and home building, he said. On the forestry side, the total amount of product is not as large, and the returns don’t come in as fast.

And on the building side, it is more expensive than using lumber trucked in from Canada or the southeastern U.S.

But if someone wants to be a good steward of the forest, then it is a way to get things done, slowly, on a small scale, while protecting the environment and helping the local economy.