07-05-2014, 10:46 AM
In any discussion where something is called sustainable, I have to ask, sustainable for who or what? Maybe you can argue that poaching live trees from the public land next door is more sustainable for you, but for the forest, not so much.
It's my understanding that ohias grow very slowly and the amount of ohia forest has shrank dramatically throughout the entire island chain. Pine, fir and other woods from the mainland are probably much more sustainable to build with, even when you factor in the transport, since they grow much faster over a large geographic area, and are even farmed for timber.
There are also many other building materials you could use here if you wanted to have less of an impact on the environment (ie bamboo etc.)
There are always adds on Craigslist for ohia logs from where somebody cleared a lot up mauka. My point is if your primary goal is to be kind to the environment and be good community members, taking down a patch of old growth forest that belongs to everybody is probably not the first thing you would do.
It's my understanding that ohias grow very slowly and the amount of ohia forest has shrank dramatically throughout the entire island chain. Pine, fir and other woods from the mainland are probably much more sustainable to build with, even when you factor in the transport, since they grow much faster over a large geographic area, and are even farmed for timber.
There are also many other building materials you could use here if you wanted to have less of an impact on the environment (ie bamboo etc.)
There are always adds on Craigslist for ohia logs from where somebody cleared a lot up mauka. My point is if your primary goal is to be kind to the environment and be good community members, taking down a patch of old growth forest that belongs to everybody is probably not the first thing you would do.