Felled Spa Trees To Be Made Into Custom-Carved Furniture Items
By 
As protesters lined up on Bayshore Boulevard on Thursday to decry the removal of more than a dozen trees at the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa, just a few hundred feet away, workers were in the process of removing the remnants of the felled trees.
Giant stumps and long lengths of trunks and limbs lay scattered around the spa’s parking lot, some exhibiting signs of decay, others serving as a reminder of the age and majesty of the century-old oaks.
And while the picketers and workers appear to be on opposite sides of the issue, local woodcarver Warren Hunt said they share one thing in common – a love of trees.
“We try to save trees, but there’s certain situations where trees can’t be saved,” Hunt said, echoing statements made by spa officials that the trees were being removed not only to make room for a new parking lot, but due to disease and decay as well.
“Hey I love trees as much as anyone – I’ve been working with wood my whole life – but sometimes they have to come down, and that’s where I come in and do my thing.”
Hunt’s “thing” involves taking some of the massive segments and stumps and turning them into high-quality pieces of hand-crafted furniture and other items.
He said the pieces he is removing from the spa will be tagged and then turned into everything from benches to couch frames to coffee tables.
“Normally the wood gets split and taken away, but when I heard about this, I said I didn’t want to see that happen to these pieces,” he explained.
“They will be tagged exactly as they were here in the lot,” he added. “That way when somebody buys it, they will know exactly where it came from and which tree it was.”
Hunt, whose family owns George Hunt Nursery in Safety Harbor, views what he does with wood as a way to preserve the beauty and memories of old trees.
In fact, one of the best examples of his work is the “living sculpture” he carved into a decaying laurel oak in front of the Animal Hospital of Northwood on Enterprise Road.
Hunt said he suggested a way for spa officials to smooth things over with those angry over what happened to the trees.
“I told them I could turn one of these big stumps into a sculpture of a manatee that they could install over at at the pier,” he said.
“That way people could continue to see the beauty of these trees for many years to come.”
Related:
- Spa Tree Removal Sparks Outrage in Safety Harbor
- Safety Harbor Explores Moratorium On Removing Trees
- SHCC Calls for Clearer Language, Higher Fees At Tree Ordinance Workshop
- City Commission Looks To Add “Teeth” To Tree Ordinance
There is only one situation where you can fail to protect a tree and the situation is called ‘selfishness’. Other than this, if you have the will to protect something, I don’t think Mr.Hunt anybody or anything can stop you. Maybe personal safety is a brighter concern than social conscience :/
It sure was a coincidence that the only diseased trees in the area just happened to be where the Spa wanted a parking lot expansion…
I don’t trust terms like “certain situations”, and I would like to know how you make “vintage furniture” out of “diseased and decaying trees”. This sounds like a very flimsy band aid approach trying to appease all of us who are deeply upset.
Glad to hear that at least the wood will be recycled….
Maybe Mr. Hunt should use these dead trees to carve statues of all of the homeless wildlife like the small birds, owls, osprey, squirrels, frogs, honey bees and other creatures that used to use this live tree as their home.