A lone towering ash tree stands outside the Pointe-Claire library, but its the ash wood inside the building that is what residents are admiring.
The city library has been refurbished with brand new furniture. Thirteen chairs, two large tables and even a fireplace, all made from infected city ash trees.
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Eight-thousand Pointe-Claire ash trees on public and private land are at risk of being attacked by the pesky Emerald ash borer.
The city has cut hundreds of infected trees.
“It’s a shame that we have to cut them down, but if the tree is infected it doesn’t mean all the wood is no good,” Pointe-Claire Mayor John Belvedere said.
Belvedere says the city is using the latest technologies and insecticides to save the trees, “but at the end of the day they will most likely get infected,” Belvedere said.
That is where Les Atelier d’Antoine step in.
The not-for-profit organization trains young adults in wood working skills as a first step to entering the job market. They also give the Ash trees a second life by making park benches, chairs and tables.
The organization has also milled curved benches for parks in Rosemont.
They have received many city contracts to transform the ash wood, with Pointe-Claire being the most recent.
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“The ash wood is a good wood for interiors. It is hardwood, it’s clear, you can do a nice finish,” Les Ateliers d’Antoine project manager Jean-Francois Belanger said.
Gnawed out rows line some pieces of wood, traces left behind by the Asian beetle. Belanger says it is sometimes sought out by buyers.
“Some people find it interesting to see the rows the insect did,” Belanger said.
Ash trees are no longer planted in Pointe-Claire, but the city says they plant 500 to 800 different trees a year.
Belvedere says the repurposed pieces cost the city $5,000, each ash rocking chair cost $350.
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