About six of every ten acres in Connecticut remain forested, and the state maintains the highest percentage of tree coverage in urban and community areas in the country (67 percent). Since the Colonial era, Connecticut’s trees have been prized not only for their beauty but for watershed protection and wildlife habitat. In New Haven, brothers Ted and Zeb Esselstyn work with city officials to make sure that even felled trees continue their contribution to the culture and history of the state.
THE STORY of City Bench has long and winding roots. My brother, Ted, and I started the company in 2009 with the mission to transform urban trees into iconic furniture, and it was his idea to reuse trees that had to come down anyway and would otherwise become landfill, mulch, or firewood. Millions of trees are discarded from metropolitan areas across the country each year, and we wanted to transform as many as we could into beautiful objects.
This story is from the Winter 2018/2019 edition of Popular Mechanics.
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This story is from the Winter 2018/2019 edition of Popular Mechanics.
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