Auburn elementary students were treated to a sawmill demonstration on Tuesday, April 21 in celebration and recognition of Arbor Day. The demonstration was put on by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Community Forester Graham Herbst and fellow Nebraska Forest Service member Kim Slezak.
Before running the sawmill, Herbst led a discussion about the various uses of processed lumber, what trees provided food and shelter for animals, and what could be made from wood. He took a number of questions from the gathered students and when the time came to show how the sawmill worked, he and Slezak loaded and sliced two long boards from a pine log. Herbst explained how much water was in living trees and noted that even trees dead for years would still hold a lot of water within them.
Herbst plans to craft a bench out of the pine tree used in the demonstration and, while the date of completion for that bench is unknown, it will be positioned somewhere in Auburn to memorialize the demonstration and the commitment to Arbor Day held by the community. Herbst went on to tell of the efforts by the Nebraska Forest Service to introduce small sawmills and drying kilns in various high schools around the state.
