NEWARK, N.J. — It looks like any sawmill in the forest — piles of cherry, walnut and oak tree trunks stacked high, trucks rumbling in and out, workers operating a saw. There’s one exception though: There’s seemingly no forest near its location, right off the highway in New Jersey’s largest city.

Citilog begs to differ. The Newark company takes unwanted trees from the so-called urban forest — parks, yards, streets and wherever else a tree might grow in a city — and turns them into furniture, flooring and other materials.

Although there are many benefits of having trees, they can become a nuisance if they become damaged, fall down or outgrow their space.

“Every community in the U.S. has this problem,” said Citilog’s founder, Stubby Warmbold.

Around the country, companies like Warmbold’s are giving new life to unwanted trees. The goal is to harness the so-called locavore movement, which advocates growing and consuming foods within the same community, and apply it to products made from trees in a way that benefits the community and environment.

Cities often pay to send trees to landfills when they are removed because of blight, lightning strikes, storm damage or other causes. But more are starting to use companies like Warmbold’s to save money on tree disposal.

“We’re all hard and heavy about having local food and local jobs and generating value-added products in the local community,” said Alex Johnson, the urban forestry manager for Durham, N.C. “Why not have the same model be applied to the trees that grow in our cities?”