We have released a major update to our mobile app, making it more powerful and accessible. The app now automatically switches to Spanish when a user’s phone is set to Spanish, helping customers use it more easily. This upgrade reflects Big Creek Lumber’s commitment to serving a diverse customer base with tools that simplify business operations.

New features make it easier than ever to manage accounts and orders. Users can now pay invoices online, submit quote requests, check account-specific pricing, and view store inventory. The app also allows customers to download product installation guides and contact any Big Creek location directly—streamlining the process for contractors, builders, and homeowners.

Available for free on the App Store and Google Play, it’s designed to work for you—whether you shop in-store, online, or on the go.

The post Mobile App – Now in Spanish! appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

Big Creek Lumber is excited to award more scholarships this year!

The purpose of this scholarship is to provide graduating high school seniors the opportunity to further their education by providing financial support to offset the expense of attending a school studying skilled trades in the manufacturing, construction, maintenance fields or forestry.

More info and to apply, visit: https://dev.bigcreeklumber.com/scholarships/

2024 Recipients:

• Aiden Fay, Scotts Valley High School in Scotts Valley, CA
• Brody Legions, Watsonville High School in Watsonville, CA
• Ernesto Frausto-Serna, Soquel High School in Soquel, CA
• Kai Groleau, Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, CA
• Noah Nicholas, Novato High School in Novato, CA
• Thomas Moberg, SLV High School in Felton, CA
• Kyle Nee, Santa Cruz High School in Santa Cruz, CA (One-Time Renewal)
• Vincent Locatelli, Santa Cruz High School in Santa Cruz, CA (One-Time Renewal)

2023 Recipients:

• Joseph Petrillo, Paso Robles High School in Paso Robles, CA
• Vincent Locatelli, Santa Cruz High School in Santa Cruz, CA

2022 Recipients:

• Griffin Spooner, Santa Cruz High School in Santa Cruz, CA
• Kyle Nee, Santa Cruz High School in Santa Cruz, CA

2021 Recipients:

• Alex Neri-Castro, SLV High School in Felton, CA
• Caeden Murphy, Independent High School in Paso Robles, CA

The post 2025 McCrary Family Scholarship for Forestry and the Trades appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

• Streamlining Success: Building Effective Leadership Teams and Strategic Exit Planning by Justin White, CEO of K&D Landscaping
• Technology Friend or Foe? IT Information and Q&A by Roy Kozina, Keri Cole and Lisa Bird with Big Creek Lumber
• Legal Presentation by Chris Ng, Esq. with Gibbs Giden
• HR, Risk and Safety Best Practices by Team BBSI

RSVP Today: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/contractorconference2024 

The post 2024 Contractor Conference Speakers Announced appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

The school garden bed grants provide opportunities for students and teachers to learn about plant biology, to discuss how food is grown, and to learn about the interaction between plants, water and sunshine. Students may also be able to assist in the construction of the garden beds.  Late Big Creek Lumber co-founder Lud McCrary was famous for his vegetable garden and Big Creek is proud to offer students and teachers the same joy of getting their hands dirty and growing their own food to share with friends and family.

The garden beds gifted through this grant program are made from locally sourced and sustainably harvested redwood lumber.  Redwood is a unique and versatile wood product that is very at home in the garden as it is both beautiful and bug and rot resistant.  The garden beds also create an opportunity for teachers to discuss where the wood products we use come from and the implications of their use.

We have informally donated garden beds to local schools in the past, and now the School Garden Grant Program formalizes this practice and opens up the opportunity to a wider audience through the annual application process. Marketing Manager Michelle Webb shared, “Since we’ve started our formal grant program, we have donated over 70 garden bed kits to schools. Experiencing the excitement of the students and staff when we deliver the garden bed kits is the most fulfilling part of my job. These students will get to learn carpentry, math, how to grow food and about healthy eating through this program. It is an honor to carry on a tradition of donating garden beds to our communities.”

Schools are encouraged to apply every year and recipient schools may apply again after a two year period.

Applications are available on Big Creek’s website; bigcreeklumber.com/schoolgardenbedgrants

2023 Garden Bed Grant Winners:

• Alianza Charter School in Watsonville, CA
• Brook Knoll Elementary in Scotts Valley, CA
• Calabasas Elementary School in Watsonville, CA
• Coastside Preschool in Half Moon Bay, CA
• Delaveaga Elementary in Santa Cruz, CA
• H. A. Hyde Elementary School in Watsonville, CA
• Ortega Elementary in Pacifica, CA
• Paso Robles Co-Op Preschool in Paso Robles, CA
• Peggy Heller Elementary in Atwater, CA
• San Benito Elementary in Atascadero, CA

The post Now Accepting 2024 School Garden Bed Grant Applications appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

The McCrary Family would like to share news of the passing of Big Creek Lumber co-founder Frank “Lud” McCrary on Sunday, August 6th, 2023 at the age of 95.

Lud was born in Santa Cruz County on June 30, 1928 and was the fourth generation of his family to make his home in Swanton. He found a lot of pride and joy in tending his ranch and had a great interest in cattle and horses. He enjoyed spending time building trails and participating in long distance endurance horse races with his wife Barbara and his family. Long-time Davenport employees will probably remember when he would ride his horse, Grey, five miles to work and pen him up down in a corner of the lumber yard before riding him home from work at the end of the workday, getting in some extra miles on the way home by taking the long way through the mountains. For many years, Lud, Barbara, and their family managed the Castle Rock 50-mile Endurance Ride, as well as the Swanton Pacific 100-mile Endurance Ride, hosted on their ranch in Swanton. Lud and Barbara spent much of their free time building or maintaining public and private trails throughout Santa Cruz County, many of them in Big Basin State Park. Lud and his family donated their time assisting marine biologists with elephant seal research on Año Nuevo Island for several years. Lud and his wife Barbara also volunteered with State Parks as mounted horse patrol.

He was known for having a great garden, especially a robust raspberry patch. He would often have so much extra produce that he would bring it to work and share it with co-workers in the office and sawmill.

His generosity of spirit meant that he was always willing to lend a hand if there was a need. Natural disasters and emergencies were commonly where you could find him jumping into action and helping his community. One of the acknowledgements that he was most proud of was a commendation from the U.S. Coastguard for his role in helping rescue a fisherman in distress off the coast. At the age of 15, Lud served with the Merchant Marine during World War II and later served in the Navy Seabees in the Korean War. Locally, he served on the Davenport Fire and Rescue in his younger years.

Lud was a dedicated student and avid consumer of history, especially local history, and was often consulted by local historians to lend his vast knowledge and perspective on a variety of topics. He was often known to participate in historical demonstrations or historical restorations by contributing his unique skills working with redwood making split shakes, posts and pickets or sourcing unique pieces of redwood for a special project. He kept a daily diary for most of his life, in which he would record what was going on in the family and neighborhood and significant events from around the world. Reading his diaries was a great way to catch up on what was going on if you’d been away for a while.

One of Lud’s greatest joys during his career at Big Creek was connecting with and learning from other people who had different backgrounds or experiences than him. He loved talking with truck drivers and learning about what they were seeing out on the road or how they thought the economy was doing, visiting with strangers or neighbors who stopped by the office for all sorts of reasons, calling ships passing by on the radio and talking to the captain, or visiting with co-workers who would often stop by his desk to catch up. He didn’t care who you were or where you came from, as long as you had an interesting story, and he could always find the ways in which you shared common ground. He had made many long-time friends from his wholesale customers who he sold redwood to over the years and he thought highly of those in the industry he worked with.

He served as a weather recorder for the Santa Cruz Sentinel for several decades. He served as a Board Member and President of the Santa Cruz County Fair Board for several years, as well as donating his time and experience serving on Santa Cruz County’s Agricultural Policy Advisory Commission. He was Farmer of the Year in 1988, and also received recognition from the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the State of California several times throughout his lifetime.

Up until his passing, Lud was able to enjoy an independent life on his ranch with his wife of 73 years. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, daughters Susan, Ellen, and Janet, sons-in-law Butch, Dennis, and Steve, four grandchildren Katie, Dennis, Agnes and Aleksey, a grand-daughter-in-law, Michelle, and two great-grandchildren Andy and June who were a great delight to him in his final years.

The post Remembering Lud McCrary appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

You’re Invited! We’re hosting our 2023 Contractor’s Conference on Friday, January 27th at the Seascape Golf Course in Aptos.

This informative seminar is geared towards contractors and the construction industry. This event will have guest speakers talking about the legal aspects of pre-liens, Weatherization, compliance, Cal OSHA, a vendor fair, prize drawings, free lunch and much more!  

Link to RSVP

The post 2023 Contractor Conference – RSVP Now! appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

You’re Invited! We’re excited to again offer free LIVE Online Product Knowledge & Installation Classes. Sessions last less than an hour and are a live training session with time for Questions and Answers. These are on Wednesdays at 10am and will continue through mid January.

Wednesday, 11/2 at 10am: Interior Fire Treat along with CA-C
Wednesday, 11/9 at 10am: Trex Decking and Railing
Wednesday, 11/16 at 10am: TimberTech and AZEK advantages
Wednesday, 11/30 at 10am: TYVEK Weatherization& Fiberon Cladding

TO RSVP: Reply to this email or send an email to marketing@big-creek.com
We will send you a Zoom meeting invite with the log on information.

The post Join us for our LIVE Online Trainings! appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

We are in the process of planning our Contractor Conference. It is scheduled for Friday, 1/27 at the Seascape Golf Course.

We are finalizing the agenda and will be taking RSVP’s starting in Mid-November!

Hopefully you can join us!

The post SAVE the Date for our 2023 Contractor Conference! appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

The event is Saturday, 9/24th from 10am – 4pm
Big Creek Lumber Vallejo
4310 Sonoma Blvd
Vallejo, California 94589
(707) 642-8921

• Ribbon Cutting at 10am
• Free Ace Buckets to the first 750 Customers + Save 20% off your purchases in the bucket! (Saturday Only)
• Meet our vendors!
• Product Demonstrations
• Free hats to the first 500 attendees
• Drawing for a Weber Sprit BBQ
• Check out our new store

We’ll see you there!

The post Vallejo Grand Opening this Saturday, 9/24 from 10am – 4pm appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.

These redwood garden beds provide opportunities for students and teachers to learn about plant biology, to discuss how food is grown, and to learn about the interaction between plants, water and sunshine. Students may also be able to assist in the construction of the garden beds.

The main construction material for the garden beds is redwood lumber sourced from local forests and harvested in a sustainable and renewable manner. The garden beds also create an opportunity for teachers to discuss where the products we use come from and the implications of their use.

While Big Creek Lumber has randomly donated hundreds of garden beds to schools and is happy to continue the tradition, we now offer the garden beds as an annual application process. Marketing Manager Michelle Webb shared, “Since we’ve started our formal grant program, we have donated over 50 garden bed kits to schools. Experiencing the excitement of the students and staff when we deliver the garden bed kits is the most fulfilling part of my job. These students will get to learn carpentry, math, how to grow food and about healthy eating through this program. It is an honor to carry on a tradition of donating garden beds to our communities.”

Schools are encouraged to apply every year and recipient schools may apply again two years later.

Applications are available on Big Creek’s website; bigcreeklumber.com/schoolgardenbedgrants

The post School Garden Bed Grant Program – NOW Accepting Applications appeared first on Big Creek Lumber.