In 1925, the gross volume of the retail lumber business alone approximated between $8,000,000 and $9,000,000 in Miami, and there were over 1,500 timber employees within the city boundaries. By the mid 1920’s, Miami’s lumber industry had taken a prominent place in the city’s commercial and industrial growth.
SLASH PINE FULL
The Florida Land Boom, which was in full swing by the 1920’s, accelerated the ever-growing need for building materials. 95% of the lumber cut in the county was used locally for framing and finishing, with the other 5% being shipped to Nassau and Cuba. By 1917, there were 15 lumber mills in Dade County with an output of about 120,000 feet of lumber daily.
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More lumber companies began steadily appearing, which is a clear indication that the development of the City of Miami was both reliable and rapid. Oliver Lumber Company and is known to have been in the area by 1896. The first timber company documented in the area was called the L.C. The growing need to meet the requirements of the ever-expanding population led to the birth of a healthy lumber industry in Miami. In the early 1900’s more and more people moved and settled in the Miami area, which of course was followed by an increased need for lumber for which to build homes and businesses. When George Merrick, founder of Coral Gables, first settled in Miami with his father in 1899, they lived in a 20×38 log cabin made of Dade County Slash Pine. Slash Pine was plentiful, averaging 520 trees per acre of Pine Rockland and proved to be a reliable timber with which settlers could build their homes and farms.
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This is because when one came across pine trees in early Miami, they knew that they had found land that was dry enough to live on and fertile enough to grow crops on.
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In fact, the pine trees would have been a factor in helping 19th century Florida pioneers decide where they would build. Slash Pine, which grows up to 100 feet in height and 2 to 3 feet in diameter, would have been one of the dominating features encountered by Miami’s first settlers. By the time the city of Miami celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1996, only 2% of the pine forest remained. The Pine Rocklands once covered 185,000 acres of Miami-Dade County. In fact, the tree was in such high demand that it was over-harvested to near-extinction. The wood is resistant to both rot and termites and is known to be one of the hardest lumber products in the world. The timber proved to be of great use for pioneers, developers, and industrialist alike. The tree played a pivotal role in early Miami’s ecological landscape and helped shape the industries which would contribute to the city’s population boom in the early twentieth century. Our Team is always ready to maintain your trees help in preservation, but should it need to be removed, it can have a new life! Think about donating for manufacture, art sculpting or other!įun Fact: Slash Pines earned their name in the past as sailors would visit the trees, cut a large v-notch into tree to collect the sap for use in the shipyards.Dade County Slash Pine (known by naturalists as Pinus Elliottii) was one of the most important pine species in Southern Florida. Its a great thought to think of a wonderful old oak living on in your backyard as a great adirondack chair or dining room table. The beneficial logs can be donated to local businesses for manufacture, art work and more. Palm debris is not a quality mulch material so we do not mulch that but dispose of it at appropriate land fill yard waste sites, where it can help decompose material there. If there is diseased wood amongst the product it goes to the appropriate waste site for management disposal.
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If not a beneficial material, it can be used for lands where the pathway/travel means can be used for compression mulch. If our Team prunes oak, maple or pine, or other hardwoods, the chipped mulch is usually delivered to customers, schools and community gardens for the property enrichment use on the land. Failure to do so will cause cracks and warping, causing the wood to be unusable or hard to work with. If you are keeping the wood in this climate you are required to use a kiln to heat and de-humidify as air drying the wood is not effective. Most land clearing companies, if using the wood for manufacturing, send the logs out of state to dryer climate. However, because of the sap content it is extremely hard to dry in Florida. For instance, the Florida Slash Pine commonly known in the lumber industry as yellow pine or knotty pine, is commonly used in furniture manufacturing. It can have many lives depending on the manner of disposal. The tree that we remove for you, is not at its end of life or going to waste.