John,
I think the issue is not if the wood is an endangered species, but how it was raised/
harvested. I used to use a fair amount of tropical woods in my bussiness, but have
since changed prodducts so I no longer do. One thing we trided to pay attention to is
the sustainability of how it eas harvested.
There was an interesting artical, I believe in Woodshop News, a few years back on this
issue. The short of the conclusion that it came to was this; Either these people are going
to slash/burn grow crops for a few years or harvest lumber. It got into some situations
where U.S. companies were helping to market "sustainable wood" for these areas and also
helping to educate them about these type of alteratives.
I dont remember the exact figures, but it was intersting to see how it takes soooo much more land to
not be sustainable. And it is also, if done right, almost a perpetual thing for these areas.
Your wood suppliers should also be able to give you more info. An d if they cant, I would either
tell them you want if or find a different supplier.
Dan Dietz
Reedsburg WI
P.S.
Regenerative forestry is also very sustainable because very little outside inputs are used.
Lots of local low skilled labor that need work, and often draft animals are used to pull
logs to reduce the impact of the forest.Maybe we could all learn something from them.