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Conservation and Sustainability
Our unit blocks are made from Hard Maple obtained from Indiana forests using
sustainable practices.
Last year, new growth of Hard Maple in Indiana was 350 million board feet,
and the harvest was 118 million board feet. Indiana Maple forests are growing
3.32 times as fast as Maple is being removed by lumbering. Moreover, this rate
of increase has been growing, and is expected to grow further. More generally,
Indiana has a total hardwood inventory of 8.2 billion Board feet, compared to an
estimated inventory of 2.5 billion board feet in 1950. The notion that
hardwood forests are being depleted or are under stress is simply false.
Maple is not a tree native to Indiana. Technically it is an
invader from the north. As anyone who has ever owned a maple tree and a gutter at the same time
knows, it is a prolific seeder and quickly colonizes fallow areas displacing
native Oaks, Hickories, and other species. The Indiana Department of Natural
Resources encourages lumbering of Maple in Indiana forests in order to restore
the native balance and because of its important contribution to the economy and
the welfare of Indiana workers.
Lumbering constitutes 3% of Indiana's Gross National Product
and employs over 38,000 Hoosiers. Annual wages in the lumbering industry totaled
1.2 Billion dollars in 2005. Total hardwood forest growth in Indiana is 1.5
times faster than the timber harvest. Indiana ranks first in the manufacture of
Wood office Furniture, Manufactured Homes, Wood stock line Kitchen Cabinets,
Wooden Caskets and Coffins, and Hardwood Plywood. To find out more about
lumbering in Indiana, readers might want to visit the web site for the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources, here:
http://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/index.htm
We join with all Americans in encouraging sustainable
lumbering practices and stewardship. Our blocks are manufactured with these
processes in mind. You can buy them with the assurance that new growth is far in
excess of lumber takings, and that Indiana workers will be able to sustain
themselves and their families from your purchase.
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