No Indeed...in fact we (Carpenter Oak & Woodland where I work) are not the only UK timber framing company to specify (and strictly monitor) only UK-grown oak for our frames. (We do occasionally buy curves from France, and particularily after the last great storm in France there was a lot of very good quality and environmentally-sane timber available there.) It's true that many framers here are currently buying from the lowest common denominator suppliers...and good quality oak is arriving from Slovakia, Poland, France, and etc...at very reasonable prices too. But I think (with respect) that this is to miss the point...

My posting was in a sense rhetorical, as I believe that we should of course take a greater responsibility for our the effect that we have on the hardwood industry (as I'm sure you can tell from my posting). I'm interested in learning what other framers think...and I pose the question about our role as 'stewards' to foster discussion. How much oak is really out there...how should we regard it (as inexhaustable or as a rapidly dwindling resource)? Should we accept responsibility for the resource? Can we effect changes to hardwood forestry in the UK? Should we be planting more young trees, and indeed, do we have a responsibility to plant more young trees? Etc. etc.