Why It Is Good to Use Local Wood!!
Here is a new idea today - Use locally grown and manufactured wood products!
* Provide local well paying jobs - Create one full time job for every 40 acres of timber.
* Local Manufacturing and Direct Marketing multiply the market value of timber 10 to 1,000 times.
* Natural products with minimal engineering and maximum craftsmanship can be produced.
* Keeping the money in the community multiplies it again 3 to 5 times.
* Trucking and shipping is minimized, saving lots & lots of fuel!
* Growers are encouraged to care for their timber for the future.
* Customers get products that will last - and know where the wood is from - a good feeling!
Or, you can keep on doing it the present way...
+ The forest owner is paid a couple of percent of the retail value of the timber. Distant big corporations take the value far away and make all of the profit. Most forest owners feel short-changed.
+ A few men in huge machines cut the timber in large volumes, creating major disturbance to the land. Forest owners feel they lose control of their land during the harvest.
+ Growers are discouraged from managing their forest.
+ Loads of fuel are used to haul the wood away. 1/3 of the cost of retail wood products is shipping!
+ Local consumers buy manufactured wood products from distant lands at the Big Box Stores, again sending lots of money far away to subsidize the big corporations.
(Yeah, this option is real smart, eh?)
Actually, Using Local Wood is kind of an old idea!