A Letter From Our Founder, Dean Larson:

I want to personally thank you for your interest in Trails End Recovery and it’s operations. I was raised around the land clearing and excavation business and have well over 20 years experience as a heavy equipment operator. My business has allowed me to experience some of the most interesting and complex projects imaginable on Oregon’s North Coast. I was born and raised here in Astoria and could never imagine living anywhere else.

Literally thousands of tons of waste products are created by construction and demolition as well as the trimmings from our own back yards. Since we opened the Trails End Recovery facility in Warrenton in 2001, we have developed innovative methods based upon simple common sense practice. We can take trucks into the woods where most can not travel because we use short trailers. So, if a log truck can get there, we can too. We also take great pains to keep our costs under control by using older, high quality machines and keeping them well maintained. That makes us highly competitive in giving our customers the best bang for their buck.

Astoria was built with these magnificent ancient timbers. So when it becomes necessary for one of our historic city’s structures to be demolished, we should view these priceless building materials as treasures; an inheritance if you will. My point is this, unless we salvaged these wonderful old growth timbers, we will lose them forever and could never truly benefit from them as part of our heritage. Timbers that were once prized as valuable building materials should not be viewed as trash now. No, these are real treasures. All that is needed is a little attention and we are rewarded with something extraordinary.

I feel a very close connection to the land and the people here. When I started the parent company, Custom Excavating by Dean Larson Inc., in 1994, I never imagined that I would ever open a MRRF, or Materials Recovery and Recycling Facility; but when I saw how much reusable materials were being taken to the local landfill, it frankly made me sick to see all of this good material being wasted. It was then that I could clearly see the need for a recycling facility in Astoria and Warrenton.

Regarding Timber Recycling, we have a special interest. Consider a tree in its normal growth cycle. The process is very slow and can take up to a hundred years before a conifer tree is considered fully mature. However, in the modern timber market, trees are usually harvested in half that time or less. At the other end of this perspective is “Old Growth” which can be measured in thousands of years. It’s rather sobering to realize that there are trees still living today that are over two thousand years old! While almost all of those old trees are gone forever from our forests, the things that were constructed from them are still with us today, but they are slowly falling apart and have, for the most part, outlived their usefulness due to structural integrity.

This ancient wood makes wonderful mantle pieces, exposed beams, large conference tables and other creative pieces of furniture. I have a personal reverence for wood and I cannot sit by and watch all of that go to waste. The result of our efforts at Trails End Recovery has been the reclamation of timbers and masonry materials that hold a special historic value for us all and by using them in our new construction projects, we will continue to benefit from them for generations to come. Stop by our office and see how these materials can be put to good use.

Sincerely,

Dean Larson