AMERICAN RED OAK

American red oak is the dominant species in the U.S. hardwood forests, making up nearly one fifth of their standing hardwood volume – with distinctive grain, and wood that is not always red in colour. The name comes from the leaf colour in the fall. Red oak trees grow only naturally and almost exclusively in North America, although planted elsewhere. They are widely distributed throughout most of the eastern United States in mixed hardwood forests. American red oak is growing 55.2 million m3 per year while the harvest is 33.9 million m3 per year. The net volume (after harvest) is increasing 21.3 million m3 each year.

So vast is the US hardwood forest that all of the 2.75 cubic metres of red oak lumber used to create the oak REDefined installation would be replaced through natural regeneration in just 3.15 seconds.

The finished stand at  Denfair 2019 comprises around 1.81 cubic metres of American red oak, which, through carbon sequestration, stores just under 2 metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Calculations indicate that taking in to account all the energy used in the process of manufacturing, the entire stand would be carbon neutral.