Treeworks

winter 2011

Mike Goulder carries a passion for trees that doesn't quit.  By his own admission, he's talked himself out of tree removal gigs by reminding the owners how attractive and beneficial their trees are.  Yet removing trees provides the source of raw material for the main branch of Goulder's business: carving wooden utensils.

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November/December 2010

Boise arborist Mike Goulder crafts each of Treeworks’ handmade cooking utensils ($10-$35) from limbs or logs of locust, walnut, apricot, and other trees that had been headed for the landfill. 

08/03/08

Mike Goulder lives in a treehouse. Not the kind that requires a rickety ladder and a password, but a simple family dwelling peppered with salvaged wood and fine sawdust.

Years of pruning boughs and pulling stumps as an arborist for the city of Boise opened Goulder's eyes to how much wood is wasted. Non-compete laws force the Forestry Department to dispose of rather than sell or donate most organic materials, and he had a hard time watching so much potential rot.

"I saw all that wood being trashed all the time and thought somebody needed to do something with it," Goulder said . . .

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