Deforestation

MLBob

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Tons of info from every angle here. Going to take a while If someone wants to read it all, but a lot to dip into to learn what contributes to the scarcity of traditional tone woods From many angles. As expected, Instrument making doesn't even register as a blip when it comes to factors, but I was surprised to read of some of the things that have major consequences for deforestation.
https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation
 

tonepoet

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I'm a tree-hugger from way back. My childhood summers were spent on the shores and in the woods of Lake Michigan. I own a few acres of that forest and dune covered area of my childhood and each year I'm back there, I walk back amongst the trees in the forest and address them, telling them to keep up the good work!!

tonepoet
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From what I understand, Pennsylvania has been almost completely logged out at least twice. Apparently, when Billy Penn landed, it was mostly hemlock forests, and hemlocks were used in the leather industry.
 

Midnight Toker

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^ true. Europes's forests have changed several times.

And to note...having read as much as I have on Stradivarius/Guarneri, etc....it doesn't always come down to species. Has more to do with climate era. You can plant a million trees of the exact same species in the same soil that Strad violins are made of and in 1000 years you'll never equate that Strad tonewood quality. Just so happens the very woods used back then were old growth that endured the little ice age, resulting in ultra dense cells. Those trees took 50-100 years longer to grow to their full height than normal. There's a reason the best science still can't top a real Strad.

W/ instruments....it often has to do with the lifespan of the tree, moreso than the lifespan of the instrument made from that wood. In other words, old instruments aren't great because the instrument is old.....it's mostly because of the tree, and it's life before it was cut down.
 

Guildedagain

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The trees that survive the chainsaw are dying from drought, heat stress, and invasive diseases and insects.
Edit: I forgot the huge forest fires
Nothing lives forever. Insects belong, they've been here for millions of years helping trees rot so they can build soil.

When some trees die from lack of water, they free up water for the remaining trees, saving folks the hard work of going out and killing trees theirselves, so there's a whole lot of nature taking care of itself.

As well there's little a person can do but watch, like a slow moving wrecking ball, gaining a little speed now and then.
 

Midnight Toker

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Nothing lives forever. Insects belong, they've been here for millions of years helping trees rot so they can build soil.

When some trees die from lack of water, they free up water for the remaining trees, saving folks the hard work of going out and killing trees theirselves, so there's a whole lot of nature taking care of itself.

As well there's little a person can do but watch, like a slow moving wrecking ball, gaining a little speed now and then.
Very true. There are some tree species that require a wild fire just to procreate!
 

steveintampa

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This is East Indian Rosewood from a neighborhood in Tampa. During the last 2 hurricanes, several rosewood trees went down and were cut up and placed by the side of the road. Have no way to get the wood or a place to store now.
 

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chazmo

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I didn’t get all the way through it, but that article really didn’t cover much (if anything) regarding instrument makers’ impact. Like you said, @MLBob , there are certainly some eye-opening things in there. There were some distinctions made in the article that I’d never really considered before, but an interesting one to me is that re-growth of forested areas does not necessarily restore a forest’s value (at least not for many years) with regard to the environmental impacts.

Anyway, thanks for the pointer.
 

Balderdash

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Where to start…

Disappointing deforestation is inseparable from worldwide population growth. Asymptotic population growth rates drive requirements to feed and house people in numbers beyond sustainable rates for the planet. Huge swaths of the Brazil rainforest now grow the beef in McDonalds hamburgers. And, enter the politicians… (sorry, moderators - politics only to the extent that it drives deforestation, I promise!). As real estate taxes go up, forest ownership becomes more and more non viable. Holding acres of trees can be a money black hole. Many properties have had to be sold off and developed because of tax burdens.

Reforestation Variety ? On our tree farm in Vermont, over the decades we have planted White Pine, Norway Spruce, White Spruce, Sugar Maple, Red Oak, Black Cherry, Black Walnut, Balsam Fir and Douglas Fir. A list of other local species would be prohibitive.
Insects ? Yes, they are part of nature. They are essential to the cycle. But, invasive insect species can and have wiped out whole species of trees. Currently, White Ash (floors, baseball bats and hockey sticks) all over its range from Minnesota to Maine and all the way down the east coast are dead and dying. On our farm we will lose hundreds of huge Ash trees to the Emerald Ash Borer.
Regrowth value ? If you clear a pocket of acreage, removing large valuable trees, and let it regenerate on its own, that pocket of acres will be overrun by rapid growth, low quality trees; Gray Birch, Poplar, Willow, Choke Cherry, Striped Maple, Swamp/Soft Maple. Without management, the establishment of desirable trees will take decades, or more, or never, because of competition with the faster growing varieties. I’ve learned this the hard way.

The decline of availability of some loved tone woods is unlikely to be reversed in the foreseeable future. So far, for the guitar industry, knock on wood, (oops, I guess that might have been a pun too far) Sitka Spruce in Alaska and Sugar (Hard) Maple in Vermont are still healthy and plentiful...
 

Guildedagain

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I hear the Sugar Maple industry is about to take a hit in NY state, upstate?

In cali, the billion dollar almond crop will come to an end, as the trees lose the amount of downtime related to the cold season.
 

hearth_man

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From what I understand, Pennsylvania has been almost completely logged out at least twice. Apparently, when Billy Penn landed, it was mostly hemlock forests, and hemlocks were used in the leather industry.
I can only imagine what this country looked like when the first European settlers arrived here, regarding the ancient forests covering so much of the land! So many very old and very large trees the likes of which we never see in modern forests.
 

MLBob

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From what I understand, Pennsylvania has been almost completely logged out at least twice. Apparently, when Billy Penn landed, it was mostly hemlock forests, and hemlocks were used in the leather industry.
Just back from a stay in the foothills of the Catskills where tanneries abounded in the mid 1800's. The huge stands of hemlock were essential to the tanning of leather. Today you can't find any hemlocks.
 

Nuuska

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Colorado River carved Grand Canyon in millions of years - then humans got ideas of using it - now it does no more reach the ocean.

How long did that take ?
 
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