Bark Laminates: A Green Product

HC has a number of Bark House® Laminates. They include white pine, yellow poplar, white birch, fire cherry and yellow birch.

White pine and yellow poplar laminates are similar to our Bark House® shingles regarding how they qualify as green products. These laminates are a by-product of the forest industry. We do not cut trees to harvest the bark. Before Highland Craftsmen Inc., the bark from the tree was left in the woods to decay, skinned from the tree at the saw mill or chipped into undesirable low grade mulch.

White birch bark is procured in areas where trees are scheduled to be cut. Teams remove the bark from a standing tree just before the tree is felled. 

Fire cherry and yellow birch are not harvested by the forest industry. We procure the bark of these trees when individuals clear personal land and don’t want to waste the material. The land owners bring us the trees and we peel them.

The bark is removed from logs using hand tools such as bark spuds, knives and sometimes fingers. This means the main source of energy used to produce our laminates is human energy. Water is not used to reconstitute anything. Simplicity (with exacting measures) is the beauty of this process. All the waste generated from trimming the bark into dimensional pieces is burned in furnaces to create steam to heat an off-site plant.

The actual lamination process permits clients to choose green glues and backings. We are happy to assist in the education of available sustainable products and encourage clients to make fully informed decisions.

Highland Craftsmen Inc. is the premier purveyor, creating the procurement, manufacturing and sales for these products.