Restricted and Endangered Wood Species

[Gerner]

I feel that we as woodworkers can, and should spread all possible information about wood.

We mostly use endangered wood spices, in a responsible way,by reusing it, for fine woodworking.

 

Share information on witch wood types to avoid using.

 

One of the info sites are.

www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/restricted-and-endangered-wood-species/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Examples of Woods from Endangered Tropical Rainforests.pdf

[wdwerker]

I agree with most of the efforts but really question some listings. Paulowania is listed but it grows like a weed all around the south. Maybe it's only in its natural growing area?

I think commercial users are probably the biggest culprits. There is bound to be some political issues and corruption involved as well. I rarely use exotics and when I do it's in small quantities .

[ColinF]

I agree with most of the efforts but really question some listings. Paulowania is listed but it grows like a weed all around the south. Maybe it's only in its natural growing area?

I think commercial users are probably the biggest culprits. There is bound to be some political issues and corruption involved as well. I rarely use exotics and when I do it's in small quantities .

coruption? In politics? You've got to be crazy!?!?(can you smell the sarcasm?)

[wdwerker]

Scarce wood gets listed, price goes higher, payoffs get bigger..... Our politicians and the well meaning Eco crowd forget the curse of un-intended consequences and we all pay the price of their lack of sight.

Tens of thousands either died or went blind as a result of the prohibition of alcohol and the mob made millions, un-intended consequences !

I am not saying the scarce species shouldn't be protected but the method may have its flaws. The only truly rare wood I buy is small quantities of old stock from suppliers I trust.

It is legal for a foreign country to make rosewood fret boards and sell them to an American company . But if that company tried to just buy the blanks so they could control the quality and accuracy of machining that is illegal.

If you are going to protect that tree let no one harvest and sell new wood from it. If you have proof of purchase long before the listing it should only be allowed to sell if carefully documented.

OK rant off, kind touched a sore point with me. Total lack of common sense these days!

[..Kev]

Well said!

[RichardA]

Amen!

[Byrdie]

Woodworking is the hobby I love but my day job is in a closely related industry and I deal with this cra... stuff all the time.

 

First of all, no seller worth his salt is going to risk his business trying to make a few extra bucks by getting caught with some illegally harvested, unethically sourced protected exotic.  I'm not telling you that you won't be able to find it, just that if you depend on your business to feed your family you're not going to risk having it shut down and yourself put in jail for the small amount of additional income.

 

My company deals with FSC, SFI and other sourcing certification organizations all the time.  We're involved with campaigns like Domtar Paper's "Paper Because" and an organization called "Two Sides (.org)" that is trying to battle the misleading, flat out wrong and often intentionally incorrect campaigns to go paperless that claim an ecological basis for their campaigns.  It's the same misguided (sometimes well intentioned) groups that make the same ecological claims about wood usage.

 

There are currently millions more acres of forest in this country alone than there were just 40 years ago.  Part of the reason for this is responsibly managed forest management by the same companies that supply us with both our paper and our lumber.  More is being done now to save old growth lumber and while I agree that some of this is necessary, it's really a more romantic notion than it is a practical one.  Old growth lumber is inefficient at the carbon/oxygen exchange that plants do as a vital part of our ecosystem.  They also shade significant parts of the forest floor that allow for new growth and do little to create new growth (propagate) of their own.

 

The problem with most of the eco campaigns currently being waged both against the paper industry and the woodworking community is the unfortunate "all or nothing" mentality that the "warriors" seem to feel is necessary.  The truth is that it would be far better to have a well regulated and managed forest industry than to go to the extremes of stopping it all together.

 

I could go on but I think I've given enough insight into my point and don't want to bore anyone.

[Tom Crawford]

Your statement that there are millions more acres  than 40 years ago may be true in your part of the country but it is definitely not true here in the Pacific Northwest.  Here in Oregon if an owner logs their land they must replant within three years - the problem is no one does it, they just sell the land and the new owner does not have to replant.  It takes years for a clear cut to begin regrowing naturally.  The property behind me was clear cut nine years ago and the is still not much vegetation and and few small trees. 

 

Please provide a reference to the scientific paper that shows old growth is inefficient at carbon/oxygen exchange.  The leaf surface area of a 50-80 foot Fir, Cedar or Redwood is considerable and I suspect larger then the plants that thrive in the shade.  Also there are many plants that thrive in the shaded areas of a forest - they can not take direct sun. The leaf surface area of a 50-80 foot Fir, Cedar or Redwood is considerable and I suspect larger then the plants that do very well in there shade. There are some areas where undergrowth below a dense canopy is sparse but there are also areas where it can be very dense.

 

I agree with your statement - "The truth is that it would be far better to have a well regulated and managed forest industry than to go to the extremes of stopping it all together."  The problem that I see here in Oregon is few in the timber business have any interest in good management and regulations are so old they don't help much.   And then there is the BLM - those people are really between a rock and a hard place.  The small interaction I have had with them I feel they are trying to do a good and responsible job but with congress pushing then multiple ways, and the extremes on both sides pushing shoving it's hard to see how they accomplish anything.  

[Byrdie]

First - I'm not interested in starting a debate or spending a lot of time remembering, finding or providing sources.  The information is out there if you care to look for it.

 

The statement about the number of acres of forest in the US is general to the entire country and not specific to any one area.  I intend no doubt as to the veracity of your anecdotes about how timber managers might avoid replanting but they are just that, anecdotes and likely not an institutional practice.  I have a close relative who also lives in the PNW and works/has worked in several wood related industries.  His work has not been effected by a reduction in the availability of wood.  Also an anecdote.

 

The evidence I've read on the inefficiency of old growth in the carbon exchange had to do with the age of the plant.  The gist of the studies indicated it's much like we humans who's organs become less efficient at performing their functions.  I'm not suggesting all old growth should be cut down because it doesn't perform as well.  What the studies suggest, however, is that it needs to be managed as well as the harvestable product  or eventually it'll all die off and there won't be any new "old growth" to replace it.  As far as citing sources, the information is out there.  Have a look.

 

None of this had anything to do with the points I was trying to make.  The point is that whether well intentioned, misguided or guided by some other motive don't understand the entire picture or consequences of the green movement that intends for us both to go paperless and to stop using wood for our projects.  The anecdotes regarding improperly/illegally harvested or sourced woods, the negative effect of the use of exotics on the rain forest, etc. are often, again, just that - anecdotes and while there may be some tid bits of fact at the root of them they are often not bourne out by significant fact.  Often there is reputable fact to prove the opposite.

 

One of the sources I get some of my information from is twosides.org  While oriented toward the paper industry and currently Euro-centric, it is expanding to the US and gaining traction here as well.  I see many sources in my work, this is the one that's easiest for me to remember because as it grows I have more exposure to it.