Why not heavily plant trees that have expensive wood?

[Primalclaws1974]

Certain wood is more plentiful than others. Walnut, ash, and maple are common where I live, and used for firewood. Cherry is fairly rare--as far as I know, everywhere--and is not used for firewood. It is primarily made into expensive furniture. My question is, with a renewable resource like wood, why is any wood that is produced from a living tree rare/expensive? Why would people not plant a forest of cherry trees? Not only would there be a viable source of the wood, but an abundance of the fruit (which is also expensive)?

 

[Chuck]

Certain wood is more plentiful than others. Walnut, ash, and maple are common where I live, and used for firewood. Cherry is fairly rare--as far as I know, everywhere--and is not used for firewood. It is primarily made into expensive furniture. My question is, with a renewable resource like wood, why is any wood that is produced from a living tree rare/expensive? Why would people not plant a forest of cherry trees? Not only would there be a viable source of the wood, but an abundance of the fruit (which is also expensive)?

The time involved and the ease of propagation. Have you got 50 years to show a profit?

 

[Primalclaws1974]

I don't know that most trees would take fifty years to mature to a harvestable state. But the forest could be tiered at different ages and as each section was lumbered, be replanted. One person would never reap all the benefits, but over time it would make the wood more plentiful and cheaper. But maybe people who deal in cherry wood don't want it to be more plentiful and cheaper.

 

[Cereus]

There's lots of trees that take 50+ years to be old enough to be harvestable for their wood grain to be profitable to use for beautiful furniture or instruments. In WA the lumber industry does use a tiered forest system to harvest wood for building materials and paper products but the age range is much lower- generally 15-30 years. As a former violin player and concert grand harpist whose instruments are made of beautifully grained wood, only the oldest growth trees are used in their creation because those trees had years to grow the perfect grain and density used for said instruments. Some of the best instruments were created using old growth wood, which is becoming harder to get a hold of since there's lots of strong conservation efforts. A lot of old buildings that still stand today, do so because the quality of old growth wood can't be compared to today's young growth wood products. Then there's the fact that some luxury woods require a higher amount of attention against disease, drought, ect. For other luxury woods, countries impose heavy restrictions in harvesting- like ebony and mahogany.

 

[Primalclaws1974]

I realize tree-growing is slow work. But at some point reforestation is going to have to be done by the harvesters as well as environmentalists. As the population continues to grow, the demand for wood will only increase. If the replanting doesn't start to be greater than the harvesting, special instruments such as Cereus mentioned will only be museums, because no old-growth trees will be available for such things. If it is there, instruments and other fine furniture will hit the roof in prices that make today's seem paltry. It just doesn't make sense for EVERYONE not to be shooting for the future, not just people thinking of nature.

 

[Chuck]

As far as I know all State Forrestry Services already do this or at least Texas does

 

[Gardener]

I think Primalclaws1974 is on to something. This could perhaps be another reason for inflation, where resources get limited each year, making the actual worth of money decrease. Also, I believe that there are conservation efforts everywhere, but it is much cheaper to clear-cut and forget about the forest. That is a large reason for forest degradation in British Columbia, Canada. Better regulations are in effect now, but everywhere in the world, harvested trees surpasses planted trees

 

[Cereus]

Unfortunately our demand for said wood far outstrips our ability to viably commercially reproduce viable crops. If we were to put a very strict ban for the next 30 years then we'd have a chance, but as it stands that would never fly in a world that revolves around economics and money. As the human population goes up so does consumption and demand for many things.

 

[AbundantBlooms]

I know that here in Minnesota (and in Washington where I grew up and where Cereus lives I think? ) Forestry is basically synonymous with sustainable harvesting. Logging has come a LONG way in the last 200 years or so I think.

As a hort major, I've learned a little here and there, and when I see someone suggesting we plant monocrops of ANYTHING, I cringe. Specifically for cherry- I think most cherries are worth more producing edible fruit or as landscape ornamentals than they are for wood harvest. Just economics. Now, if you've got an old dying cherry on your property and you want to help that tree go out in style, you might have something there.

Walnut burls though- have you thought about that?

 

[kammy]

Where i live Cedar and Mahoe trees are used mostly to make furniture ; i have two cedar trees in my backyard but it took ages for them to grow to maturity as those two trees were there before as i was born and they're just about ready now to be harvested....however this is a very great idea as these trees that are used for making furniture are very costly.

 

[Cereus]

Walnut burls are gorgeous and I've seen them used in a lot of veneers and even on some instruments. It's unfortunate that there's redwood burl poaching going on right now because of high demand.

 

[ACSAPA]

It's kind of depressing to think that planting trees takes almost an entire human lifetime to be profitable. That means it would have to be a family business that several generations would keep going and the first family member to plant trees would never see a profit. Bummer.

 

[Rosyrain]

That is a great question and I think the primary reason most people don't do it is becauase that it takes so long for the trees to grow. Trees are one of those plants that can take decades to get to an adult size.