Posts are best cut from rot-resistant wood such as black locust or cedar, pointed at the base with a hatchet.

Japanese arborists taught the university’s tree crew to erect T-shaped supports from rot-resistant locust logs, lashed to the branches with artfully wrapped rope.

Lightweight, rot-resistant, straight-grained and easy to work with, chestnut wood was used to build houses, barns, telegraph poles, railroad ties, furniture and even musical instruments.