G'day experts!
As I've travelled and worked throughout the UK during these past five years or so, I fear that I've completely failed to come to terms with the basic issue of sustainability in the UK timber supply chain:
Just how long can we keep chipping and chopping away at English Oak before the supply is either exhausted or irreperably buggered up for future generations?
In my quest for answers I've approached foresters, government agencies, gameskeepers, loggers, estate managers....blah, blah, blah, and what I find bewildering is that the majority of these fine folk appear to be just as curious about the issue as I am.
So, abandoning the more traditional avenues of investigation...I turn at last to my bearded-brethren! What do we as timber framers feel are the inside and outside parameters of timber sustainability here in the UK? Should we use our considerable influence over the UK sawmilling industry to effect slow-but-sure change in the way that oak is selected, extracted and broken down? Do timber framers have a responsibility to ensure that sensible and sustainable replanting always follows our harvest of the forest?
My own opinion, for what it's worth, is that we (timber framers) as consumers must shoulder the responsibility of our demand upon Britain's limitted forestry resources. In effect, we are all defacto stewards of these resources...and we should bloody well behave ourselves, or risk the loss of this magnificent inheritence.
What do the rest of ya think?
