BOISE, Idaho — Instead of local trees being sent to the landfill, a local Boise man found a way to reuse them.
If you've been in Idaho long enough, you've likely heard the term "Les Bois" - which is French for "the wood."
Legend has it that's what was uttered when the Boise River was seen by French fur traders. Now city of the trees is another name for Boise.
Everman has always been a craftsman. You may have even sat on some of his work. He built the bars and furniture you see inside Barbarian Brewing.
Now, he's putting his craft with lumber into a purpose by saving tree from the landfill. Like trees that came down from damage, or local development.
"I can see no better way to do them a service, is to give them an afterlife and live on for generations by local craftsmen making tables and stuff for businesses and shelving and family heirlooms," he told KTVB Wednesday. "Anyone in the valley, can come here and buy local wood with a story."
About six months ago, Everman started his sawmill company, Les Boise Milling, and began leasing space in Boise to work on the saved trees.
Inside his place is the equipment to make slabs ready for homeowners to buy.
He's already saved 50 trees from going to the landfill
The first step is finding the right trees. He's saved a variety of trees, including silver maples, elm, ash and sequoias.
Everman said he works with the city of Boise, Meridian, and Nampa to identify trees that are coming down or already down.
He added he's worked with Boise State University, The Ada County Highway District, and St. Lukes to take trees that were also coming down for projects by those organizations.
Once the trees make it to Les Boise Milling, Everman will individually put the trees on his band saw.
"It's 12 feet tall, 33 feet long, and can handle 67 inches in diameter, so it can handle most trees around here," Everman said.
He added, no one else has a saw like this in the Treasure Valley. The saw sits on train tracks, to be able to move the length of the tree.
The saw will cut individual slabs on the tree. Everman said he doesn't alter the shape at all. Then, he'll stack them into bundles to be put into an industrial size kiln to dry.
"When it goes in there, it's 100% wet," Everman said about the slabs. "Air drying outside for every inch thick it is, it takes about a year drying naturally."
In the Kiln, it takes two months to dry a slab.
"It sucks all the air out of that chamber and heats up to 160 degrees,' Everman said. "Because you got to kill the bugs in it, you got to sterilize it, and you got to dry it."
After months of being in the Kiln, the slabs will get taken out, flattened and smoothed by Everman too.
Everman said he has already saved 50 trees since March. He plans to get that up to 100 trees in the next several months.
The idea is a customer or wood worker will come and see what Everman has, or someone will come with an idea, Everman said.
"(If) their kids grew up swinging on a rope swing under that tree in their front yard, and an insurance company comes by and says that tree has got a crack in it, your insurance is going to triple, and they have to take it down...It's a heartbreaking situation," he said. "No one wants that. But I can take that bad situation and turn it into a good thing."
You can learn more about Everman and his collection of slabs on their Facebook.
"I'm really looking for people with imagination that want to build their own stuff, whether you're a professional woodworker or a DIY or a builder that wants to get some of this wood into your house," Everman said. "I really want people to stay off a furniture row and come in here, find a craftsman and some wood they love, and get something they can pass down to their kids built out of."