I've been thinking about this topic as well, but on a larger scale, involving more materials. There would definitely be a lore friendly way to expand on the game's crafting system as mentioned above for trees and such, and for other materials such as concrete and steel. I was thinking something along the line of individual quests that would unlock a sawmill, a quarry, and a scrapyard for the player to use once completed. These areas could produce a small amount of resources on their own (which would need to be connected to the settlements via trade routes) but the player could accelerate the process by fixing additional equipment, cutting down trees, mining, crushing cars/steel objects. Trees could have a respawn rate, as could concrete (those quarries are big anyways), and as for the scrapyard I guess it could restock itself (the nod scavenged cars in the wasteland for example) this could be a great immersive mod, and other materials could be added although these are the big 3, and would simply expand on the existing system. Other expansions could include fusion core charging, animal farming, etc. Anyhow, I have no modding experience, but I'm sure one day something like this will come to be, to the delight of all of us ;)
