Can a lumberjock be a Tree Hugger?

Or maybe you are an “urban logger”, and treecycle.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

I hug every tree right before I chop it down.

Just Kidding!!!

I use as much naturally downed wood as possible. Every year after the storms I collect from my own property.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com

I am the same way as Blake . I use a lot of downed wood and reclaimed wood.

-- John in Cranbrook http://www.extremebirdhouse.com ....http://community.webshots.com/user/cranbrook2

Thanks for your post, John. I added you to the website!

-- http://www.naturesdetails.net

I have beat my head against the wall again.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Can a Lumberjock be a tree hugger?

Can a person who eats meat be an animal lover?

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I drive around and “scroung” construction piles looking for semi-usable wood. I find it to be easier on my pocketbook. I am wanting to eventully get a portable mill soooo that I can cut my own lumber from natural down trees. Being in Middle Tennessee, we have plenty of trees that are felled by weather and age. About 4 or 5 years ago we had a tornado hit The Hermitage, Home of President Andrew Jackson. It felled app 75 trees, some as big as 5ft, that could be traced to planting by President Jackson himself. The group that run it opened to gates to folks with mills to come and help clean up, Talk about a haul.

-- Adrian ..... The 11th Commandment...."Thou Shalt Not Buy A Wobble Dado"

yes we can !

-- ..... art for lifes sake ... danwalters@lumberjocks.com

I’m old school about recycling. I’ve repaired, refurbished, rebuilt or restored almost ALL of my hand tools. New ones are fine and I own quite a few, but I love to put an old tool back to work. As to shavings, my neighbor takes my hand plane shavings for his bird cage. He prefers pine. Sawdust is great for spillage of any kind. I use it to catch drips from staining, etc. I also use mineral spirits at least twice. Whenever I clean brushes I put them through two baths, the second will become the first next time as I put it in a container marked as Used Once.

Fitments from various hand tools can be salvaged from an otherwise unusable tool and maybe used later for a repair on one that needs just that part. That’s why all of us tool guys have a slush box or two… or three… you get the picture. I also will break up an old broken plane body and bury the pieces around the hydrangeas, it keeps their color up. One time I used an old transitional plane that was in such bad shape as to become nothing more than a counter weight for a pull shade on the shop window.

I do however, avoid cheap crap tools the likes of which have become all too ubiquitous in the U.S. Our “throw away” society has engendered the import of such garbage to the point to where if you’re just a regular schmo fresh off the sidewalk, you’d have no idea what real quality is in a tool. Unless, you happen to walk into to a good hardware emporium with a knowledgeable staff or maybe a Woodcraft store.

I also own a twelve year old convertible with over 170K miles. It’s got a new top and is slowly being restored. The guys at the lumberyard get a kick out of my calling it my, “pickup truck” as I put the top down, lay down the passenger seat and stack 12’ boards on that side leaving them hanging out over the rear. They are always concerned about the leather but I say, “hey, it’s my truck.” Besides, the driver’s seat is in much worse shape. It’s had to carry the load everyday.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

Of course lumberjocks can be tree huggers. When managed properly, forests are a sustainable and renewable resource. When forest products are used for long lived products, of which many can be seen on this web site, they are also providing an ecosystem service in the form of carbon sequestration (doesn’t really apply to short lived products, like paper). When using lumber acquired from naturally downed trees, lumberjocks are preventing years of sequestered carbon from being released in to the atmosphere. The same goes for reclaimed and recycled wood.

I’m not sure what a “Tree Hugger” is. I’ve worked to protect the environment on farms, ranches and in the Wilderness Areas most of my life while at the same time making a living from them. Timber is one of the few re-newable resources. If you mean, can a Lumber Jock qualify as one of pseudo-enviromentalists that chase publicity, I doubt it. Most are to real for the fantasy.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Trees are a renewable resource. A crop, if you will. “Tree Hugger” (to me anyway) is a preservationist—don’t cut any tree for any reason. By that definition I doubt if many of the LJ crew qualifies.

-- Maplewood, MN

Hello all;
One of the main questions//statements I have heard made over recent years is that trees are a renewable resource of wood and if this is indeed true, then what’s wrong with cut and just replant. What I will ask that individual is; “when is a renewable resource, non-re-new-able?”

“When one examines the history of trees, the land, the air we breath and all the creatures, of which we as humans came last and then still we all have to live together….then it also needs to be understood that renewable resources can become non-renewable. What I am talking about here is not selective cutting and thinning of trees, but the kind of cutting that goes forth when large areas of land are cut of their trees. We can say that in 20-30-40 years the trees will come back, but what happens when the soil and ground cover is destroyed, which in turn changes the wildlife of plants, animals and farmland. The echo-systems of the world have evolved over long ages and periods of time, (centuries) and then we fail to remember this or understand this, since we as humans for the whole part and individuals for a shorter part, are only recently new arrivals into this earth make up.”

”....when is a renewable resource non-renewable? That is when we change the sources from which that blessing of resource grows. Speaking of trees and forests now, I say that when we over time, destroy the trees thinking that we can all-ways just replant, we forget that the trees are only what has come forth from the earth as good fruit. If over time and time again we continue to change the land and soil, destroy the habitats of life-form that inhabit these areas, we will in time also change the atmosphere and the air we breath along with the natural way our planet warms itself and protects itself. When that happens a renewable resource can be said to have vanished and is in a state of decline which leads to being non-renewable.”

And then here is the link for the full version….There is alarm, but action to save forests has been sparse.....

Thank you.
GOODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/

“when is a renewable resource, non-re-new-able?” When you build a mall,subdivision… where trees used to grow.
Here are some statistics from The University of Illinois Forestry Dept. on timber acreage.

• Forestland prior to European settlement – 13.8 million acres (40 percent)
• Forestland today – 4.4 million acres (12 percent)
• Illinois ranks 49th among states in percent of land remaining in original vegetation

Sustainable forestry is one thing (and a good thing). We are overlooking what we can do in our own back yard, literally. “think globally act locally” is the mantra of most environmental groups. There is way too much being made about “Green Cities” and how many trees they plan to plant over the next (insert time frame here 5-10-20 years)...the whole time hauling the trees their Grandfathers planted to the landfill/tub grinder when they are removed. This is directly lumberjock related, countless millions of bft of potential lumber is lost every year. I am not what you would call a tree hugger (but have hugged a few and even kissed a couple, long story) or an environmentalist. I do however hate to see waste.

-- Urban logger, http://nelsonwoodworks.biz/

Frank,

It’s true that irresponsible management can lead to a degradation of the land, and that forests can be damaged beyond repair. Luckily, in our part of the world, New England, this does not have to be the case. In other parts of the world, this is a concern, especially in the tropics. The problem there is that a very high proportion of the nutrients in the system are in the trees themselves. When a tree dies in those systems, they decompose very quickly, and those nutrients get reused. Harvesting in these areas removes those nutrients, which can disrupt the natural nutrient cycle, and the land can take a very long time to recover. We should consider these things as we continue with our hobby, and perhaps make an effort to use local wood, preferably wood that comes certified from a sustainable forestry sanctioning body, such as FSC. These products are more expensive, but if we as consumers demand certified wood, eventually it will become the standard.

Chris

We had the cottage area reforested…..........22,000 trees

planted well over 300 here on the farm….......and still going

50% or more of all the work I do is made from re-claimed timber

-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/

Our summer home is right in the middle of the Hiawatha National Forest. Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the dense forests in both upper and lower peninsulas were cut down with a vengence – and without any concern for the future. The blast furnaces at Fayette (now a State Park) were fueled with charcoal burned down from hardwood trees. Just think how many birch, cherry, and maple trees were consumed.

It is hard to believe that less than 100 years ago our beautiful forest was bald hills and bare land with ugly stumps sticking up. Many of these stumps still exist and serve as a reminder that we are stewards of the land. I have about 1500 board feet of White Pine drying in my loft from trees that have fallen in storms. Many of the white and red pine trees are at their maturity and there is some logging going on. some of these logs are going into log homes. The Jack Pine trees are not suitable for lumber, so they go to the paper mills. Replanting is going on all the time. I think the forest has a great future.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

Like Roman and others on this site, I live on a tree farm. It’s a renewable resource as long as it gets renewed. We started planting here around 1964, and I assure you, there are a lot more trees on the family property than when we started, and so on, blah, blah blah. I’ve discussed (or ranted) the renewable resource thing on the LJ site multiple times, from multiple angles. The only comment of substance that I would attempt to make here is to suggest that everybody ought to take a forestry course if they are truly interested in keeping our trees. I know in some parts of the US, that may be tough to do. Here in SC, forestry is a pretty big industry, so the local farm extension service offers a short course every now and then. Anyhow, if you get the chance, it’s really interesting and informative.

And one more thing, if anybody has paid any attention to my projects, then they know how much I love reclaimed heart pine!

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

Yes we can be “tree huggers”.

DW and I are both very environmentally responsible and try our best to limit our footprint.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

I love to re use many things i find or that people are giving away on criegslist i just tonight found a nice desk that i will sand and stain and then resell. the money madefrom the desk will go for things for my woodworking!

-- anthony pelton

Yes, we can.

Most of my projects are now sourced from recycled timber and what isn’t comes from sustainable sources – from NZ plantation pine forests. Our own 250 acres forest, of which I am now the steward, is 50 acres of plantation pine which we intend to harvest using a select harvest method (unheard of here for plantation pine) We plan on milling the timber ourselves, drying in a solar kiln and selling locally or turning into wood products and replacing the plantation with natives as areas open up – rather than the usual clear-cutting. The remaining 200 acres is mainly native beech. It falls under legislation which requires us to produce a sustainable forest plan if we want to extract anything. This we did and we have a permit to cut 500 cu.m ( about 225,000 bd ft) over a 10 year period. Before we do we must submit a logging plan for the year. Even downed trees count! In order to get the permit we have to prove that the permit amount is less than 10% of the total growth of the forest – ours is well below that. We plan to use a coupe method which has proven to best simulate the natural regeneration of the beech forest ( the explanation of this method and why it is the best is a long story – a blog some other time).

My partner literally hugs the trees whenever we go in to the forest. Some of these trees are over 600 years old – they demand a great deal of respect!

As a woodworker, I see my role as giving our trees a life beyond the one they have seen for the last 600 years without endangering their offspring. As a forester, I see my job as preserving the forest for the benefit of the entire community – our forests are natural sponges in a very wet area. Cut the trees and the floods would wash away everything and our streams and rivers would stop running during dry spells. Cut the trees and birds disappear and biodiversity stops.

As a tree hugger though, I do have one not so nice job – which is to control the non-native animal species which ravage the native forests. These are primarily possums, deer, pigs, rats, stoats, weasels and ferrel cats and goats. Unfortunately these were introduced for various stupid reasons. I have to kill to protect the trees. This land knew no mammals until humans introduced them. In New Zealand birds take on every role that mammals do elsewhere. Take the birds away and the trees stop reproducing. It’s amazing.

Yes, so tree-huggers can be trappers and hunters too and it’s not inconsistent.

Sorry for making this so long…

-- Steve, New Zealand, www.steveracz.com

I agree with every one here, add to that I’m too cheap not to recycle wood. I’ve built alot of nice pices from things such as discarded pallets, crates, old buildings, reno discards and the such.

-- This is my coffee cup, there are many like it but this one is mine. Without me my cup is nothing, without my cup I am nothing.

I grew up in western Maine, and had many friends who made thier living in the logging business. I also worked in the woods part time. Most people would never consider us tree huggers, but we cared for the forest as much as any enviromentalist.

Maine does a pretty good job managing the forests.

I look at woodworking much like I look at Ducks Unlimited. We harvest a resource, but in doing so have adopted the responsibility of ensuring it’s longevity.

The appreciation of the harvest extends the responsibility and appreciation of the item we covet.

The way I see it, we are all tree huggers in some respect.

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

For what it’s worth, I would like to comment on a couple of people’s posts on this thread.

Carl, I can’t say how much I agree with you on your advice for woodlot owners on taking a forestry course. Not only can you learn how to properly care for the land, but you can learn how to get quality wood out of it as well!

ShipWreck, as a newcomer to Maine and a forestry student, I’m really learning to appreciate how much loggers actually care for the land. The common perception is that they mostly are simply out to exploit the resource for the $. It does, however, make sense that they are the ones who are most concerned about the sustainability of our forest resources.

Steve from NZ, I can’t help but be jealous of how well radiata pine grows in your country. In my eastern white pine research, I have often been looking into what research has been done with radiata in New Zealand. Having never been to NZ, my perspective on forestry in NZ has been limited to the literature on radiata that relates (quite well) to my research on eastern white pine. I would really enjoy hearing your perspective on forestry in NZ, as I have been exposed to NZ forestry only as micromanaged,data intensive monocultures of radiata. Maybe you could offer some insight as to what real foresters are actually doing over there.

Let me see..recycled lumber, local lumber, Logs all come from dead trees…hum. Live in a straw bale house. That should throw me in with the tree huggers except for my big red truck and having to help build all those plastic cookie cutter houses everyone seems to want. I find it really sad that people live in neighborhoods where your house legaly has to look like your neighbors. baa baa

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

I have always appreciated how lucky I was to grow up in a small town in Maine. Nothing like being in the middle of downtown, and a 5 minute walk later,.... I’m in the woods. I still look back today and wonder why I ever left the place for 20 years in the Navy. My wife and I chuckle about it at times, but I never tell her how home sick I still am.

I’m sooo encouraged to be in such company.

Most, if not all the wood in my shop is either salvaged/offcuts from building projects, salvaged from the firewood pile, or recycled from other wooden items in disrepair.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/