How do you know if your wood has come from a sustainable resource

[Phil Spencer]

When I made my last timber purchase (Myrtle) I asked the yard foreman if the wood had come from a sustainable resource, he assured me that it had. But apart from his word how do I know?:confused:

Phil

[Wood Butcher]

Unless it is stamped with a sawmills brand that you could trace maybe

You Don't!

[Auld Bassoon]

This is especially true of imported timbers. I've bought various burls (eg Amboyna) and I've some doubts about it being from a sustainable/renewable source. On the other hand, I'll shortly (after the current commission is complete!) be buying a fair amount of Mahogany that is grown in a managed plantation. It may not be as pretty (but close) as, say, Cuban or Honduras Mahogany, but I'll settle for renewable.

Perhaps mills and yards should provide certificates of authenticity? Which bureaucracy of course does bad things to prices...

[echnidna]

unless you're using Radiata or Hoop pines odds are it isn't.

[NeroBass]

haha the irony... the certificates would probably be printed on paper that came from a non-renewable resource to certify that the timber you have just bought is =P.. Same argument for people who publish documentation against logging... OH wow they use paper to print their report=P

[eddie the eagle]

Sustainable supplier of plantation grown 'Cuban' mahogany (I think it's grown in the Solomons.)

Jarrah Select,
14 Yale Drive,
Epping VIC 3076

03.9408 5454


Quality looked good - nice and tight growth rings, not too much cupping when dry.

Tell them that the lead came from their attendance at the AWISA exhibition for trade in Sydney early July.

Cheers,

eddie

[journeyman Mick]

Timber that I buy for jobs, (besides pine) I don't know, and as a lot of it is imported, Kwila, New Guinea Rosewood, Meranti, etc, I can just about gaurantee that it's not from sustainably managed forestry. A man's got to make a living though:( . For my own timber stash, well some of it's come from storm salvage, some from urban clearing/arborist salvage and some from rural land clearing salvage. I don't know that you could call any of it "sustainable" but the trees weren't felled for me, they were coming down anyway, I just saved them from being burnt, chipped or composted. :)

Mick

[Phil Spencer]

Timber that I buy for jobs, (besides pine) I don't know, and as a lot of it is imported, Kwila, New Guinea Rosewood, Meranti, etc, I can just about gaurantee that it's not from sustainably managed forestry. A man's got to make a living though:( . For my own timber stash, well some of it's come from storm salvage, some from urban clearing/arborist salvage and some from rural land clearing salvage. I don't know that you could call any of it "sustainable" but the trees weren't felled for me, they were coming down anyway, I just saved them from being burnt, chipped or composted. :)

Mick

I have no problem with salvaged timber, I think that it is good that something can be recycled, I am concerned about commercial sustainability though, as wood workers how can we ensure that there will be enough wood for the future?

Phil

[journeyman Mick]

Phil,
it's good to care but to put it in perspective, I'd say that your average pro joinery shop would use more timber in a week than a hobbyist woodworker would in a whole lifetime.

Mick

[Phil Spencer]

Phil,
it's good to care but to put it in perspective, I'd say that your average pro joinery shop would use more timber in a week than a hobbyist woodworker would in a whole lifetime.

Mick

I agree Mick, but don't we have to start somewhere? It seems to me that we are living in a fools paradise with consumption at record unsustainable levels what will be left for our kids. How do we start to make sure that there is something left for the future generations.


Phil

[Studley 2436]

Good mob to contact about this are Ecoselect. They have a nice web page up. All our recent reject hardwood was ecoselect timber meaning it came from managed forests.

Stuff from overseas well that is another thing

Think of timber the way you think of any crop. You harvest it and grow it back harvest it again and so on. OK bit more complicated than that and of course clear felling the Amazon is a long way from sound practice but Timber should be a clear winner environmentally.

Compare it with Oil or Steel for instance that you have to dig up and can't replenish.

Studley

[AlexS]

Talk to the Woodage at Mittagong NSW. They are involved in importing timber with auditable trails.

[Ianab]

I dont have a simple answer here :confused:

But one thing that people often dont consider when they say avoid or ban exotic timber is that you then give the tree zero commercial value to the locals. If a tree or forest is 'worthless' it's more likely to get slashed and burned so someone can grow beans to feed his family.

If he can make a living harvesting logs in some sort of sustainable way, then the forest may actually be better protected :rolleyes:

I'd suggest most problems are not simply due to too many trees being cut, but that land is not being replanted or even left to regenerate a new forest.

Cheers

Ian

[loz]

I choke a little on the whole sustainable resource issue when I look at the chronic wastein the timber industry. There are truckloads of logs left rotting in the bush for various reasons. On top of that - although I believe things have improved now, I heard that up to 80%of a sawlog was wasted with standard milling practices.

And then there is the firewood issue! I can find a beautiful straight tree with perfect grain laying on the forest floor and legally chop it into 18inch lengths for firewood but if I choose to take it out of the bush in a six foot length and do something special with it, I can be prosecuted for stealing!

These days most of the timber I use is scavenged off farms etc and I never use imported rainforest timber, simply because I dont like it!

A mate is into agroforestry. He is now producing some beautiful timber, has a diversified income and provides his property with some protection against erosian, salinity etc. I reckon that he is on a winner and I hope that more smart cockies will follow his example.

[CT]

Here in the UK, the large timber supply yards are much easier to regulate and control so you can reasonably trust the source of the material and the Forestry approved stamp. Then again, you get a lot of scum, mostly pikeys (aka Irish gypsies) who steal cut logs from forestry works and then sell them on to the less scrupulous yards. Generally, I will only buy from yards I know and that have been in business a long time.

I have heard of trading standard agents being assaulted by the pikey scumbags when they've been confronted or secretly filmed stealing from forestry stores. Fortunately, in Oz, you don't have pikey scum?