Official Luthiers Forum!

A group of instrument Manufacturers have joined together and launched a campaign to bring awareness and resolve, of the diminishing old growth temperate Rainforest of SE Alaska. The United States crown jewel of old growth Rainforest. Where an estimated 80% of the sitka spruce for world's soundboard production comes from. And it's my home.
Tom Bedell, Owner of Two Old Hippies family of instruments[Breedlove Gtrs, Weber Instruments, and Bedell Guitars] has been here. Has seen first hand, what we at Alaska Specialty Woods Inc. do, How we do, and Why we do. They and many others that have come to see first hand, refer to us at ASW as "the best steward in America". {That's someone else's quote to us} And we appreciate that.
I have converted some of the pdf' to small jpg files for posting here. I have only loaded those with text. the missing pages are just photos.

Here is a link to download the medium res. brochure as a pdf https://www.hightail.com/download/ZWJVY ... NVg0WjlVag

i'M SORRY. I see the jpg's loaded backwards... last page to first page.

Thanks

Thanks Brent
Informative stuff here.
This does have a political edge but I am going to let this post go. To me this has the same type
of importance as the CITES stuff that has been posted here over the years.

LanceK

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Good call Lance, I think (hope) we are capable of keeping politics out of this thread.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Not a great post on April Fools' day.... I first thought it was spam.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Political???

I think for Brent that was him bending over backwards to be correct...

Mike, I don't get it.??

I have seen the movie " Music Wood" , which visually depicts the tragedy of clear cutting Sitka in Alaska. I hope your efforts are rewarded. I will definstely sign the petition.
Ed Miller

Ed, I was interviewed for that production. . They where here for half -3/4 of the day. While here, they filmed me dissecting a block into soundboard products. Then after all of that..There are just a couple utterances of Alaska Specialty Woods, if I remember correctly. It's been some time since I saw it.

I don't know how the sustainable management of our resources got to be "political", but thank you Brent for flagging this.

Steve

what I find disturbing about what's going on up there is that foreign interests are benefiting from it, not Americans...I get disturbed enough seeing old growth woods being used in carpentry (there is the ability to build with mostly metal, though I find it annoying to deal with as hanging a door to metal studs is difficult to make sturdy), but when I know most of that prime wood is going overseas I begin to think VERY nationalistically...

I have mixed feeling about this. I have always supported the timber industry, but have always held conservation as critical. Conservation to me is responsible use. I realize I would not have access to the forest to get any of my salvage logs if not for the timber industry. Tourists would not have the access to this forest, they have today without the timber industry. US companies are the harvesters. Both US and foreign markets purchase the product from these timber and wood product producers. And Americans and other around the world buy the products produced. Everyone likes low prices. The consumer climate today for the most part regarding products from wood resources is "wood is wood". People just don't know about these things. One of the effects is there is no value put on a 500 yr old tree, that is any differant then the 100 yr old or younger tree. Wood is wood. Old growth does not just mean a old tree. It is also a whole ecosystem that an old growth tree grew in. Where it competed for light and moisture, and is therefor slower growing than the tree farm grown tree that produces wood fiber and a lot of oxygen.. I would like to see more of an appreciation to this resource. In the guitar building community, many will squak at a guitar top price of $50 or so, that is cut from a tree that took 500 yrs to grow and will never be again, yet will pay $100-$400 or more for a hardwood back and side set, cut from trees that can be produced in 100 yrs or less from regions with long, yr round growing conditions and even larger areas.
Our Tongass is a lot of average, but only a small fraction supports big spruce., Our timber producing forest here is 60% hemlock and maybe 20% Sitka. If that, less than 1% is what you guys would accept as a usable soundboard. A lot of times, its just 1 quadrant of 1 log out of a whole tree, and the rest, you wouldn't use for bracewood. I'll tell ya, the forest doesn't grow as depicted in Alicé in Wonderland, and not all trees are equal. Currently the LAST HURRAH is going on here on POW Is. 100 million bdft over the next 4 yrs. But the markets are soft and the big spruce has no value.. Families need the jobs. Cedar is the selling specie. There is so much I can share.. I've been here and associated with the timber for just shy of 30 yrs.

My statement in support....
Alaska Specialty Woods Inc., has long been concerned with conservation, which to us means wise utilization and management and being the best steward one can be.
The once vast seemingly endless old growth forests of SE Alaska, broken up only by the waterways that separate the the many islands is now a patchwork of dark green, light green and brown, that from a distance looks like a kindergartner's first quilt. In just 70 yrs, The vast stretches of massive old growth Sitka are now replaced with young growth that is managed to be nothing more than framing lumber and wood pulp fiber. Not one sellable soundboard can be produced from a Sitka tree in the Tongass that is under 200 yrs old. Yet the forest is managed on a 95 yr rotation.
We at Alaska Specialty Woods support the efforts of Musicians For Forests, to help bring awareness to this diminishing treasure and extremely under appreciated resource.

Kindest Regards,
Brent Cole Sr. - Pres./ Founder Alaska Specialty Woods Inc.