Salvaged timbers come from unwanted, dead or live trees in urban or farm areas.
Salvaging is an excellent way to gain access to varieties of wood that are generally unavailable or ethically-unacceptable when taken from our country's old growth forests. Timbers from urban sources are often attractive and useful for construction, wood-turning, furniture or craft work. Salvaged timber should not come from natural forests, or from State Forests logging operations, as rotting logs are an important part of the forest ecosystem. Using salvaged timber for which the salvager has offered a large amount of money is also not an environmentally ethical choice, as it encourages landowners to fell live trees or remove important habitat trees for sale to salvagers. Pasture, urban or rural gardens and odd corners of private land are often good sources of salvageable timber.