On a weekday morning in Anaheim, you’ll likely find Danny Mahoney ’09 moving between a grinding yard, a sawmill, and a showroom stacked with slabs of sycamore, ash, and magnolia. As Recycling Manager at West Coast Arborists (WCA), he addresses a practical question: what happens to a city tree once it’s removed?

WCA trims, maintains, and plants trees for 300+ California cities, supported by a Geographic Information System (GIS) that tracks the work history of millions of street trees over decades. Danny steps in when a tree’s life ends. The goal, he says, is to “close the loop,” turning green waste into mulch, soil products, firewood, and, when the logs have promise, lumber.

That last piece powers Street Tree Revival, WCA’s urban wood initiative led by Danny’s cousin and championed by Danny day to day. Logs that once went straight to the chipper are diverted to the mill, sawn into slabs or dimensional boards, air-dried, and finished in a vacuum kiln. The results show up as municipal gifts made from a city’s own trees, public furnishings, and even instruments. A standout partnership with Taylor Guitars (its “Urban Ash” line) grew from WCA’s long-view inventory planning, proof that city trees can have a second life on a concert stage.

Danny’s connection to the work runs deep. He got his start at WCA at 13—after a crash course from his dad on the value of a dollar—and earned his ISA Certified Arborist credential at 23. Today, he collaborates with mechanics, IT, plant-health specialists, and an expanding recycling and woodworking team. “We’re not just trimming trees—we’re managing an entire ecosystem. One day we’re coding GIS data, the next we’re milling wood or blending soil. It’s all connected.”

Soil is a big part of the story. California Senate Bill 1383 pushes cities to reduce landfill methane by procuring compost and mulch. Danny’s team turns WCA’s green waste into high-quality fresh arbor mulch and experiments with blends, such as palm fiber plus finely ground wood chips and sand, to create a robust nursery-grade amendment. The environmental upside pairs with an economic one: WCA’s Northern California “biomass campus” model transformed what used to be steep tipping fees into seven-figure annual value, savings, and revenue that help cities and ratepayers.

The impact is also cultural. In WCA’s showroom, boards carry the marks of their former lives: grain bending around an old nail hole, laser-engraved gifts that connect cities to their own canopy, community tables built for neighborhood gatherings. “It’s stewardship in the truest sense—hands-on, day in and day out. It’s about the trees, the people, and the cities that depend on them.” Danny emphasizes that urban wood isn’t just diverted waste; it’s material with a past that can serve the community again.

Ask him about Servite, and similar themes surface. “Servite taught me discipline, teamwork, and accountability—the kind of formation that doesn’t fade. The same lessons I learned in the pool and classroom show up every day at work.” 

From mapping a street tree to milling a guitar top that kept a manufacturer producing through a supply crunch, Danny’s days illustrate what modern urban forestry can be: regenerative, data-driven, and human. The next time you walk beneath a city canopy, remember that when one of those giants finally comes down, a Servite Friar is helping ensure it doesn’t become waste. It becomes what’s next.