Kalamazoo, MI - Landscape Forms, North America’s largest designer and manufacturer of site furniture, has partnered with a sustainable wood distributor representing Amish loggers to supply Black Locust wood on all but a few of its wood products. The exceptions are those having unique material or dimensional requirements. Weathering characteristics of the Black Locust wood have been tested on benches on site at the company’s Kalamazoo headquarters. All products carry the Landscape Forms three-year warranty. In addition, the distributor makes Black Locust available with FSC® certification.
Most of Landscape Forms’ Black Locust is sourced within 500 miles of the company’s manufacturing facilities, often from sites being cleared for other purposes. The wood is selectively harvested, using teams of horses where required by the terrain or requested by the customer, and milled into boards in small mills. The boards are air and kiln dried and graded to Landscape Forms quality standards by a certified wood grader. 100% of the tree is used, much of it in furniture-quality boards. The remainder is used to make trellises and parquet flooring. Bark and waste are used for mulch and biomass fuel.
Common in the Midwest, Appalachia and Northeast US, Black Locust is a thorny, wild tree that grows as a ‘volunteer’. Relatively few wood species have the strength, durability and weathering characteristics required for furnishings in outdoor public environments, but Black Locust meets these criteria and more. Not only is it fast growing, regenerating on its own after cutting, it is dense and durable. (Fence posts have been known to last 100 years.) The wood also has a natural resistant to insects, micro-organisms and to rot and decay.
About Landscape Forms
Since its founding in 1969 Landscape Forms has earned a reputation for excellent design, high quality products and exceptional service. The Landscape Forms U.S. headquarters and manufacturing facility is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan with sales offices throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Asia.
Landscape Forms collaborates with renowned industrial designers and consultancies, landscape architects and architects to design and develop integrated collections of products that address emerging needs and help create a sense of place. The company has an installed base of products around the world. Clients include municipalities, transit centers, corporate, college and health care campuses; and familiar brand leaders such as Boeing, Cisco Systems, Disney, Sprint, American Airlines, Herman Miller and Nike. Landscape Forms was recently named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Top 15 Small Workplaces in the US. www.landscapeforms.com
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