Bill Gates faced an ‘owl crisis’ building Xanadu 2.0, spent millions on timber

Bill Gates’s mansion faced hurdles due to bans on old-growth timber, prompting him to innovate. He financed a specialized heavy-timber-recycling sawmill to utilize reclaimed wood. Remarkably, the estate features half a million board feet of salvaged Douglas fir beams, highlighting Gates’s early commitment to environmental sustainability. Notably, this timber salvage was influenced by the conservation of a threatened owl species.