Ukes and endangered woods.....shouldn't we care more?

pepamahina

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I've read a lot of talk here about woods of various kinds and which woods are better for what sound, and so on and so forth....but I can't find any discussion at all about wood choices in ukuleles and their environmental impact. Mahogony, for example, is a terrible choice in terms of the effect on world rainforests. When I was looking for my current uke I wrote to Kala asking them about where they source their woods and what they had to say about environmental impact, and they didn't even respond. I chose an acacia uke because I read a guide from rainforestrelief.org that said that acacia was a good alternative wood in its list of woods to avoid. You can see the pdf that I read here:
http://www.rainforestrelief.org/documents/Guidelines.pdf
I'd like to see more people talking about this issue here. So what do you think? Do environmental considerations ever enter in to the equation when you are choosing a uke?
 
I have not bought ukes based on environmental considerations. Thank you for bringing this subject up because it is a topic near and dear to me since I live in the giant Redwood forest region and we are very familiar with environmental concerns on our forest. I did not realize that Mahogany was a wood that impacted the rain forest. Thank you for turning a light on my ignorance. I just bought an acacia wood uke so I blindly made the correct wood choice but because it was so economical I am concerned where in China and by whom it was made. I think this is a good discussion to have and I know I would be willing to pay a little more money to know I was supporting fair trade and meeting environmental concerns.

Roxhum
 
I've read a lot of talk here about woods of various kinds and which woods are better for what sound, and so on and so forth....but I can't find any discussion at all about wood choices in ukuleles and their environmental impact. Mahogony, for example, is a terrible choice in terms of the effect on world rainforests. When I was looking for my current uke I wrote to Kala asking them about where they source their woods and what they had to say about environmental impact, and they didn't even respond. I chose an acacia uke because I read a guide from rainforestrelief.org that said that acacia was a good alternative wood in its list of woods to avoid. You can see the pdf that I read here:
http://www.rainforestrelief.org/documents/Guidelines.pdf
I'd like to see more people talking about this issue here. So what do you think? Do environmental considerations ever enter in to the equation when you are choosing a uke?

Good reason to buy vintage! :)
 
sustainable woods

RS Muth is a guitar maker in NY who is using sustainable wood.

Model S15 and has been dubbed the “New Yorker” since all of the woods were obtained in my home state of New York. This guitar features Adirondack Spruce soundboard and bracing, quartersawn black walnut back and sides, butternut/hard maple/black walnut neck, fumed pear fingerboard and bridge, hard maple binding, butternut linings and birdseye maple burlwood accents.


OTHER IDEAS
Dogwood would work for fret boards. Dogwood was used in the past for making roller skate wheels and spindles for the woolen mills. It is very tough and wears smooth. Holly, hornbeam and persimmon would also work well for fret boards. Although the color is light on these woods for fret boards and may need to be stained to help hide dirt and oil. "Ebonized" maple was used for economy string instruments.

Butternut is very good neck wood. It is light and strong and carves nicely. Working with butternut is like working with cedar. Walnut and ash would also work for necks.

Ash, cherry, birch, locust, walnut would work for back & sides.
 
Thanks for the thought. Never really considered it.
 
From the FAQ on Kala's website:

Q: Does Kala use environmentally sustainable wood sources?

A: Kala only uses woods that are from environmentally sustainable sources. We comply with all of the Lacey Act requirements regarding this issue. Our woods are common woods that are in good supply.
 
to be honest, I never gave it much thought either.. I do believe that the good Lord gave us what we need on this earth, and we should use it, including to make music. But, saying that, I feel we should NOT abuse what God has blessed us with. Our over use and abuse of earth's resources does irriversible damage to our planet, and that is not being good stewards of God's gift to us. I am the same way about eating meat. I am an avid meat eater, and lover, but disagree how we abuse the animals we depend on for food, and over harvest for the sake of commerce.

All that said, I am sure musical instruments do impact precious woods, but I still bet it isn't near as much as other industry. Simple old growth pines no longer exsist due to over harvesting to built anything common like homes, furniture, siding, just about anything. Even particle board is made from pine pulp. Other hard woods, and even exotics are used in high end furniture, paneling, flooring, and so many industries outfitting the rich with their furnishings and comforts, that I still think that the woods used in musical instruments pale in comparison as far as impact. Just food for thought as well..
 
No, it's not something any of the uke players I know are willing to talk about, and yes, we should care more. I'm guilty of two koa ukes and will probably have a third eventually. Then there's the D-VI for my husband (eventually), and that will be four. Past that, I really don't want to use that as a tonewood anymore. I feel guilty enough for those already. Doesn't the impact of mahogany depend on where it's sourced? Please correct me if I'm wrong there.

And of course as you point out, no one wants to discuss where it's sourced. :( I'm also concerned about factory conditions of the more budget ukes out there. It's a happy instrument. Wouldn't it be horrible for it be made in sweat shop conditions? But no one asks, no one knows, no one discloses. I've heard some of the factories are nice. But it was just some random internet thing I read. Anyone could type that with no source to back it up.

/Getting Mainland _Mahogany_ tomorrow. Guilty. :/
 
I'm also concerned about factory conditions of the more budget ukes out there. It's a happy instrument. Wouldn't it be horrible for it be made in sweat shop conditions? But no one asks, no one knows, no one discloses. I've heard some of the factories are nice. But it was just some random internet thing I read. Anyone could type that with no source to back it up.

I've given this a lot more consideration than the actual environmental impact. When I first started playing I thought I would only buy vintage, but that turned out to be more of a "lifestyle" than I was willing to deal with (intonation issues, cracks, etc). I ended up with a made-in-China uke until I could afford my first Hawaiian one, and never really felt right about it. So I've committed to buying only Hawaiian or custom in the future.

As far as the environmental impact goes - I've seen bamboo ukes out there, which I think is one of the most sustainable woods? They don't sound half bad, and the grain is kind of cool looking.
 
Plainsong makes a great point. There have been many debates here and many locked threads about wood and factory conditions. I know that koa is an endangered wood but if i'm not mistakem all the koa used to make ukes is coming from supplies that were harvested years ago.
There is a point that we can get all hippy but unless you are willing to pay the price then there is a point that you have to understand that things have to be done. Think about this, If we all decide to not buy instruments b/c of where the wood comes from then what happens to the wood? It rots:)
 
Like "rosewood" the vast majority of "mahogany" used in instruments today does not come from endangered rainforests. There are many species of wood loosely called "mahogany" and "rosewood," and most of what's currently being used is from pretty sustainable sources.

Also, instrument building in general has a very, very minor impact on supply. Even if one counts all of the instruments being made of wood, from flutes to harps to guitars and ukes, the total hardwood used is a tiny fraction of what is consumed by the furniture and cabinetry industries. You could probably make thirty ukes from the hardwood used in one good dresser, for example. And, while we tend to get tunnel vision and think of musical instruments as a major consumption of resources, in reality there are far more expensive dressers and wardrobes made every year than fine instruments. I.e. there are far more pieces of furniture than instruments produced every year and each piece of furniture uses enough wood to make many instruments.

It's not hard to find good Koa because the uke builders used it all up, it's hard to find Koa because furniture and cabinet makers used it up! :)

Furthermore, wood consumption is no longer even the primary motivation that is causing deforestation (frankly, I'm not convinced it ever was). Most of the deforestation is caused by clearcutting for agricultural purposes - i.e. expanding cropland - in an attempt to feed a burgeoning population. Sure, it's easy, or used to be, to find places where loggers were hauling off entire hillsides of trees. Now, that is less common but deforestation hasn't slowed - it's just that now most of the wood either gets used locally for construction or is simply burned off. Is burning off the forests more environmentally sound than harvesting the wood? Probably not... :)

Now, I'm certainly not against being environmentally responsible, but I think true environmental responsibility has to address industries in direct relation to their actual impact. It kind of reminds me of a Mad Magazine (is that even still published?) item thirty or forty years ago that showed a bunch of hippies demonstrating outside a power plant - then they piled in their VW flower busses and departed belching clouds of oil smoke... That wasn't just humor - it was actually a very accurate picture of the situation existing at that time - when that item was published the amount of airborn pollution from power plants was a tiny fraction of what was emitted by the millions of automobiles on the road. But, what did everybody want? Those dirty old power plants shut down. It wasn't until oil got really, really expensive in the 70's that we discovered that, hey, you can actually reduce pollution while increasing fuel economy - and thereby make a huge, huge impact on air pollution!

John
 
In NZ we're pretty serious about conservation of our native forests. They were (ab)used by early European settlement and even to this day by Australians. Once we cottoned on to the damage we were doing, we made it illegal to cut down native trees and their forests. Typically permission has to be gained to use wood that has naturally fallen over. Subsequently most of our everyday wood is from pine plantations, and our luthiers tend to import specialty woods, use swamp wood, or use recycled wood sources where possible, usually because that's the most accessible way to get the good stuff. We have a healthy recycled wood products industry, mostly furniture based.

That said...

Do environmental considerations ever enter in to the equation when you are choosing a uke?

To be honest, not really. However, if I was buying in a higher price bracket, then yes, it would enter the equation. And I would probably be buying from a local luthier rather than a more mainstream manufacturer, so I'd have the opportunity to background check where the wood used originated from
 
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Again, cattle is why koa isn't as plentiful as it should be. Want to save a koa tree? Give up eating beef. Cited from several sources on the Internet:
Koa in NOT an endangered wood. While Koa grows only in Hawaii, it is still the second most common tree in the State. There are presently over 100,000 acres being grown commercially. Current projections of Koa industry consumption require less than 6,000 acres on a sustainable basis. Hence, there are currently significantly more acres of Koa available than the industry will use. That being said, much of the original Koa forest land from old Hawaii had been converted to cattle pastureland in the past century.
All of the growers/harvesters I know are also required to replant.
Anyone want to try playing an uke made of cow leather?
 
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When I was going to get my MP custom made, I decided that I was going to source the wood myself from a "good" source. I looked at some sources in Oregon and Tasmania. I didn't have luck with either. I then went and looked at an endangered wood website, and got a bit despondent when I discovered the name of EVERY wood I was considering on their list. Ironically, as Chuck points out, Koa is not endangered. But I wasn't considering Koa. (The site in question said that koa will most likely become endangered before too long) The reality is that the world of rainforest hardwoods has been seriously exploited, and it is those woods which tend to be best for instruments. Not that other, more local favourites, like spruce, aren't endangered. It's a minefield.

In the end I went with zebrawood, which is not great. Lots of it is harvested by small groups of locals, so there's an argument that it is a good local economy wood, but there are boycotts on its use in cars (Mercedes used to use it on interiors). It was really an acoustic then aesthetic decision. And Mike could source it himself, so it was convenient.

From everything I've researched, if you got all the scrap of all the rare woods and used it to make ukuleles, you'd never have to cut down a tree for our own community needs. Well, tenors might be more of an issue, but a couple timber suppliers said that soprano-sized spares are common.

I do think this is an important issue, mostly because industry is eventually going to create either the mass shortages, or else the reactionary political will, to affect what woods we have access to.
 
I've read a lot of talk here about woods of various kinds and which woods are better for what sound, and so on and so forth....but I can't find any discussion at all about wood choices in ukuleles and their environmental impact...

I think I'm in love with you.

Oh, and Bean Sprout uses environmentally responsible materials for their instruments, too.
 
Here is an opportunity for UU members to give back, regardless of whether koa ukes are truly a significant part of the deforestation problem:
http://www.ponotree.org/index.html
I don't know anything about the organization, but looked into the sustainability issue before buying a koa uke despite my concerns..
 
We make & sell bamboo ukes with the hope of lessening our impact on the planet. It is true that instrument makers are not the primary reason that global tonewood supplies are dwindling. But all the same I'd prefer to see that fine koa in the hands of Chuck Moore or the Kamaka family or [insert fine Hawaiian brand here] instead of being shipped the extra distance to create a just-ok instrument.
 
wow. I never knew. All the years I lived in Hawaii, I was always told that koa was endangered by all the aunties and uncles and tutus. I stand corrected. This is why, one should do research before telling things they heard as "fact":)
 
Here is an opportunity for UU members to give back, regardless of whether koa ukes are truly a significant part of the deforestation problem:
http://www.ponotree.org/index.html

I like the fundraising aspect of it too. If UU set up an account they'd get $20 for each tree planted...money I'm sure would help to maintain the site.
 
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