Uses for Wood from Pruning and Tree Felling

Just putting a thought out here. Locally, can wood with herbal and skincare properties be made into such instead of being sent to the composting factory? Even small quantities of hardwood could be made into small furniture. Would furniture makers and other hobbyists be interested to buy large hardwood logs directly from work crews? Instead of the wood - each over 1 metre in diameter - being sold to timber merchants/hoarders for $70 a piece?

Arboriculture work crews put in blood, sweat and tears, literally, and should deserve more in terms of monetary remunerations.

Even small quantities of wood in the right hardness, quality and/or properties could fetch a pretty penny. Instead of being sold to middlemen, who are only interested in colossal sized hardwood logs.

 The ubiquitous Baphia nitida or Camwood are found as periphery hedges around schools and rubbish centres. It is relatively fast growing, given that it belongs to the Leguminosae family.

 Quite a lot of wood would be taken off every time the crew comes around for pruning. As for the hedge above, the leaves were touching the ground before being pruned, so you could imagine the amount of wood being stacked up.
As a sidenote, this hedge has low and long branches ala the Tembusu tree on the Singapore $5 note, and some are "self-supporting", as they form an arch that touches the ground. I had sat on one such branch before.

 The famous leaning towers of... Acacia confusa.

Close-up

Older Acacias seem to have a tendency of "sudden death".

 Stack of logs from the relatively fast-growing Khaya senegalensis. Even a large log above 1 metre diameter would not fetch much, as so many were being felled nowadays.

These hardwood would be worth more, as the trees are slower-growing and harder than Khaya.

The one lying flat is Casuarina equisetifolia and leaning on it are Cyrtophyllum fragrans (syn.
Fagraea fragrans), or more commonly known as Tembusu.

Accumulation of leaf needles at tree base and other updates

The below would be an update for this post on de-compacting a tree base:
http://openplants.blogspot.sg/2017/05/accumulation-of-years-of-leaves-and.html

Photos taken on 14 Feb 2018.

The tree that I de-compacted the tree base still looked lush as ever, but the tree beside it actually looked worst; the leaf density decreased.

The tree base that I de-compacted (left) is starting to compact again but still appeared flatter than the one on the right.

River bank failure possibly due to high velocity water. Self-sown plants were valiently holding on to the slope face but alas, it was too steep (or the water eroded away the soil it was rooted in).

Location marked with red arrow.

Lastly, one of the last few pages of the book "Trees of Our Garden City, 2nd ed" feature the iconic (at least to me) arching Callistemon viminalis, between the Chinese Garden MRT station and Garden. It was removed I think in 2016 to make way for a cookie-cutter landscaping at the peripheral of the MRT station.

Taken on 22 Sep 2014.

Taken on 14 Feb 2018.

Root development limited by surrounding shrubs

Shrubs surrounding a tree, Tabebuia rosea, along a roadside verge at Beach Road may have limited its spread of roots. The area is sheltered by buildings although it was located quite close to the coast. It used to be closer, hence the road name but reclaimation changed the actual moniker.

The tree may have been fine with not spreading its roots too far. But one day the leaf cover of the shrubs were taken off and coupled with the monsoon season, mercilessly dumping large volumes of rainwater onto the relatively small planting verge.

 Taken up one lane

Lifted root plate