Camp Small is Baltimore City’s sorting facility for all removed or downed City-managed trees. Manager Shaun Preston has helped to transform Camp Small from a “Stump Dump” to an urban wood utilization program that repurposes over 1000 tons of material each year. The program offers green and kiln-dried lumber to local craftsmen, produces benches and outdoor furniture, and works with City schools on implementing outdoor classrooms and natural playscapes. Camp Small’s efforts have gained national attention and have become a model program for municipalities looking to start wood utilization programs.
Shaun Preston is a Maryland native who as a child developed a love for being in the woods and a love of building things out of wood. But it was his joy for making art that would send him to Stetson University in Florida to learn oil painting, which eventually brought him to Baltimore. Shaun spent a decade working as an artist, carpenter, metal worker, museum curator, and bartender before deciding that trees and nature and conscientious action for our environment were what he wanted to be involved with. When he’s not at work, he’s most likely in the woods with his family.