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Subject got your attention?....

This isnt about raping a forest of its last virgin stash, it is about an interesting idea on how to help save precious tropical hardwoods.

I found a very interesting website http://www.tropicalhardwoods.com that has tree plantations in Costa Rico that are dedicated at reclaiming Tropical rainforest. They buy up small farms that had been deforested and plant a number of tropical hardwood species that are native to the area including species like Cocobolo and Teak.

The idea is that if you are looking for an alternate type of investment that is also eco-friendly, the tress take a minimum of 25 years to reach market size. You own those trees the whole time and if you decide to sell they calculate the present value and buy you out.

They have replanted around 2 million trees!!! Trees are priced per 100 and by species.

I am not planning on this being a future batch of guitars (in 2027) but rather am looking for ways for part of my estate that I leave my children to be something that is for them and their children. I currently have farm land and tree farm land in the US but thought that this site in Costa Rico sounded very interesting.

The acres I have planted as a tree farm in the US are planted in Walnut and Ash at the moment. Ash grows faster than walnut and provides shade and a canopy so the walnut grows slower. To promote straight trunk growth with little to no lower branches the trees are planted close together which causes them to grow up more than out as they are growing to reach the light that the Ash is taking away. At years 15-20 the Ash can start to be taken for timber and to thin out the density. By that point the walnut trunks are straight and tall and with thinning none of the trees are stressed.

I am seriously looking at buying into the Costa Rico plantation as not only is it something for my children but it also has the coolness factor of saving rainforest. 25 years ago I used to have a business importing hardwoods from Central and South America and I am sure that it was not environmentally sensitive. I also was part of a sawmill that still exists in Guyana. I am looking at the Costa Rico type of thing as a more positive way to impact deforestation (that in the past I am sure I contributed to).

The one thing about that time when I did when I was timber cruising/importing was that I was part of inventing a revolutionary type of kiln that combined a vacuum kiln (a vacuumn chamber that was 2 meters diameter by 6 meters long) combined with microwave induction plates (as stickers between the layers of wood). The drawback of a vacuum kiln is that as a vacuum is achieved the internal temperature drops. By using a microwave current to moderate the temperature the wood coudl be kept just warm enough for the vacuum to suck out the moisture in the wood.

At that time in the late 70's the wood I was bringing in was in log/boule form and we would resaw Ebony, Cocobolo and other logs in flitches and then use the vacuum/microwave kiln to dry the wood from dead green to kiln dried in less than 10 days. We were getting rosewood and ebony boards with no checking, case hardening or other splits that were up to 30 inches wide. The whole process was written up in an article in Fine Woodworking but I dont remember the issue as it was back in the 1976-1979 timeframe.

When I think of all of the wood that has been squandered, it is amazing. The biggest use of Brazilian Rosewood was for cutlery knife handles!!!

At least now that these types of woods are now precious, they will be appreciated. By the way I still have some of the Brazilian Rosewood back/side sets that I got from LMI in that timeframe that set me back $75.00 a set

Hey Shawn,

I'll double your money on those Brazilian sets...


That's a great idea. I've often thought that if I had the spare cash I would love to invest in the reforestation of Brazilian Rosewood. I don't hear much about that particular spcies being plantation grown at all, which considering it's demand would make for a worthwhile effort.

_________________
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That's really cool. My question I have is whether you can trust the land owners to carry through with your money invested. I know that they have pretty squirrely land use rules.

I also wonder why they don't plant Brazilian rosewood. Looks like you would get more return for the money.

What is the cost of 100 cocobolo trees?

They are only planting tress that are native to the region which is in Central America so it is too far north for Brazilian Rosewoods natural range. The teak that is listed is the same teak species as is in Mexico and is the southernmost of its range.

As far as their financial stability and viability, they will send any prospective investors info if requested. They have been in the business since 1991 and have been featured in magazines such as CEO magazine. Their tree farms are in Costa Rico but they are a US based business.

In the case of Brazilian, it would be interesting if the government of Brazil could do something similar with tree plantations.

At tropicalhardwoods, Cocobolo for 100 trees is $4482.00 http://www.tropicalhardwoods.com/htm/tree_order_forms/tree_o rder_form_p1.htm

I was in the dentist's office a couple of weeks ago and picked up the April 2004 Smithsonian magazine with this article about pernambuco in Brazil. Sounds like there is some effort to re-establish this species.

http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues04/apr04/ violin.html

Eric