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West Kootenay business is giving dead and fallen trees new life

Woodland Hillside creates hand crafted wood products from rescued lumber on their property

Woodland Hillside is a new business in Trail B.C., that is keeping wood out of landfills and creating beautiful hand-crafted wood products out of rescued lumber.

Melissa and Ghislain have always loved the outdoors and after spending years in different professions, their love of outdoors had them moving to Trail and buying property in the West Kootenay.

This came with the possibility of off-grid development to start on a new path of helping nature and creating products in an environmentally friendly way.

“It all began with an idea that represents our love of being in the outdoors. Spending time in the forest made both of us inspired by the natural world. It became very important for us to do what we could to live and work in a way that was environmentally sustainable,” Melissa and Ghislain said.

The couple wanted to help regenerate the forest and protect the wetland that is home to so many animals on their new property.

Cleaning up the fallen and dead trees was a big part of this.

But, when most times this wood is sent to landfills and go to waste.

Woodland Hillside decided to create products out of this rescued wood and create a better environmental footprint in the process.

“We first thought about a business with our bundled gift crates that would use rescued wood and support other local artisans in the area,” Melissa said.

“After designing and creating the gift crates we tried out a variety of other wood products. Woodland Hillside was born.”

The products are all handpicked and environmentally sustainable.

They make gift crates that come filled with a variety of local hand-crafted goods, and the items are chosen by artisans that also look to stay environmentally friendly and use good quality ingredients.

Woodland Hillside also uses in its packaging Canadian-made 100 per cent Kraft recycled paper and they thrive that all parts of the crate can be used and none of it goes to waste, with the lid of the crate being able to be used as a trivet.

They also have a variety of other products like furniture and home decor made from rescued wood.

Each product that Woodland Hillside makes is one of a kind since every piece of rescued wood has different characteristics.

“We want our products to be functional while utilizing wood that is decayed, affected by pine beetle or from a dangerous tree that had to come down,” Melissa said. “Each piece brings out the beauty of the different kinds of trees on our property, she added.

“We work with the trees that need to be used and create unique and one-of-a-kind pieces.”

Not only do they keep trees out of landfills they also plant new ones in their place.

Last year alone Woodland Hillside planted 150 tree seedlings, in areas around their property that were damaged by previous bad logging practices.

After much success, Melissa and Ghislain realized they needed a storefront and after finding a space at the Waneta Plaza and extensive renovation they opened in April.

You can look at products and more about the business on their website: www.woodlandhillside.ca.

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