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This was the "Teaser Title" to an article in our paper Saturday.  The title was "Tree poachers cut and run - as Northwest forests fall to feed custom instrument craze, maple lovers gently weep"

The article was from the Seattle Times and can be found here.  Their title wasn't quite so negative toward the Guitar Building Community. 

Is all of this just for guitars, or are people just obsessed with highly figured wood for any type of woodworking.  Bowls, lamps, guitars, etc.?

I also noticed that they don't know much about pretty wood, cause the word Zoot never appeared in their article.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Caught a story about this on NPR sunday night and the only   industry they mentioned was guitar making.
The stoey started with a guitar playing and "This is the sound of a $3000 guitar...." etc....

Are we going to have to start certifying are woods like the manufacturing sectors and their materials certifications?

Makes me think,

Louis

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- Louis Freilicher

Oh No! Not another learning experience!

I think I was mostly mad because of the way the paper where I live, The Charlotte Observer, made is seem like such a whiney subject ("while maple lovers weep"?) when there was nothing "weepy" about the subject or the original article.  Then they only printed about half of the article.  They left out all the stuff about the Woodcarver who was arrested and convicted for having 3 logs in his truck that were given to him by a friend who had some trees taken down in his yard.  It cost him $21,000 to defend himself, and he still lost the case and the logs. Also left out all the stuff about Michael Gurian and how he refuses to buy from anyone except known suppliers.  Maybe they thought it was redundant, but I get steamed at papers that twist things to fit their own agenda.

Sorry!  Didn't mean to rant.

I'm sure there is a problem, but then I see people like Shane, who work hard to save the wood from a tree that could be falling soon anyway, and make it available to the instrument building community.  What a great service he, and I'm sure others, do for conservation and the industry.  Where are the articles about those who are doing it right?  Bet we don't see those in the paper.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Waddy, my friend
they dont mention alot of things and they sure as crap dont mention the trillions and trillions of cubic feet of wood that the forest companies leave as waste in slash piles and discards
(yes figured maple too, because they dont have a steady export market, but also garry oak,.. a protected tree! pacific yew,.. a protected tree! and other beautiful hardwood timbers such as holly, walnut, and mountain ash, juniper etc)
the forest comanies just mow these and scrap them, (or burn... no evidence) and then take the steady mill timbers such as spruce fir and hemlock...
Ive seen the most beautiful hardwood just rotting away or being burned wholesale..
Not only this but they replant only monocrops such as all spruce and fir, neglecting natural orders of regular forest balances, thus creating serious pest problems such as pine beetle infestations, that threatens the rest of the forest tidbits(scraps of bush) left behind.
This and the devestation of habitat for forest creatures - leaving these creature battling each other for the remaining areas and starving to death...
But someone poaching a maple, well,,,, thats BIG news!!!!
It sickens me to my stomach! I could go on - but whats the point ? - the best thing to do is save your criticisms and send a letter to the editor pointing out the one sidedness and inconsistancies in the newspaper article! This way some will be made aware of the real problems in our forests at least.
Cheers
Charliewood