ethics

[stuckinthemud]

Hi All,

I am in a quandary, any advice/comment/leg pulls will be helpful.
I need to make four or five bows in the foreseeable future and reckon I have cut enough staves to make more than double that from a variety of timbers (yew, holly, hazel, laurel, Chinese privet and hawthorn) but have stumbled over a tall, yew tree with several stems, of which 2 are 15 feet tall 8 inch diameter and arrow straight with minimal side branches.  So what think you; should I thin out a lovely tree for timber I may never need, even if it is very good quality English yew??

[willie]

if you know that you can take good care of it and not waste the wood, why not plan ahead for the future just past the foreseeable? I think it keeps well

[hunterbob]

I would love a chunk of yew.

[DC]

Pros
1 Good yew is hard to find.
2 Cutting it won't kill the tree.
3 If you don't take it some landscaper may cut it down and chop it up.
4 You can always trade/sell for something else.

Cons
1 None come to mind unless it's in the police chiefs front yard.

[Aaron H]

Pros
1 Good yew is hard to find.
2 Cutting it won't kill the tree.
3 If you don't take it some landscaper may cut it down and chop it up.
4 You can always trade/sell for something else.

Cons
1 None come to mind unless it's in the police chiefs front yard.

+1

[Blaflair2]

U can never have too much wood. U don't end up needing it trade it. It takes forever to dry so why not cut it and I'll have it down the road. It don't go bad 

[half eye]

If the pruning is inevitable, or it's in a precarious situation there is no ethical dilema.....other than letting it go to waste.  It would be a shame for good English yew to become something less than a proper English bow.
rich

[DC]

I think you picked the wrong site if you are looking for reasons "not" to cut it. It's kinda like asking my wife if it's ethical to dig up diamonds.

[stuckinthemud]

I guess that even though the yew almost certainly belongs to no-one, it equally does not belong to me. Also, the tree is more useful as a tree than as a pile of lumber, but the comment about tree surgeons chopping it into little pieces really bites, especially as they are really active around here at the moment.

[Del the cat]

Yup, if the tree will still be there when you're done then no prob'... You will probably be just "allowing some more light in"
Better than seeing some idiot cut it into 3' lengths.
I think the secret is not to get caught... the best way to be invisible is to wear a hi vis jacket and hard hat.
Of course, personally I've never cut Yew without permission (blimey it's hard to type with your fingers crossed )
Are you in the UK? If so, where abouts are you.
Del

[Sidewinder]

I think that a bowyer that finds something like that is UNETHICAL if you don't cut it. Provided that you don't get into trouble for doing it of course. I would never openly encourage some one to poach wood. But it is kind of an unwritten rule that if you find good bow wood that is within your reach of cutting then it has to be harvested, otherwise it will possibly be turned into firewood or worse yet just piled up and burned. I don't think you can ever have tooo much good bow wood. If one day you look up and see that you have a bunch of stuff your never gonna get to you can always just thin it out and give it away like I did or sell it to someone that can use it, whatever you prefer.

[dragonman]

I would like to remind people of the other side to this arguement.  it is definately unethical to take more than you need from this world...we should walk lightly through this world taking the minimum we need for survival...Isnt this the philosophy of the native american tribes, who have taught us so much about making bows, shouldnt we follow their example in all ways? not just when it suits us....If everyone lived like this the world would be a better place and we would all be much happier? Bit of devils advocate in there, but true non the less...cant imagine the original primitive bowyers massing great piles of staves in their lodges.....just incase they run out in the future

[osage outlaw]

I agree with B-flair.  You can never have to much bow wood.  You might get a few more requests for bows and having some seasoned yew staves will come in handy.  If you can harvest the limbs without killing the tree that's an easy decision for me.  I cut a lot of fallen osage trees.  I'd rather see the wood get turned into a bow and serve a purpose than rot away on the forest floor. 

[Blaflair2]

Yeah, I think even the Indians would cut it 

[stuckinthemud]

Hi Del, I have a high vis and safety boots but if I felt guilty enough to have to be invisible then I would have answered my own question....yes am in the UK, fairly close to Cardiff.  The tree concerned is in a roadside copse and the only likely owner might be the local council who have a policy of chipping or chopping all their felled trees - no re-cycling or passing/selling on timber (I checked).  There could be an outside chance of them cutting back the copse as there seems to be an insurance/health and safety issue  for road-side trees and the possibility of them falling in storm winds - the council are actively felling all the trees in verges along busy a-roads and dual carriageways. This copse is near a B-road and I always say that there is nothing in all the world so lovely as a tree, but the copse is very dense and I could argue that it needs opening up as there is no understory growth at all and signs of active rot in some sections as there is no air movement. Still if I am going to do something stupid, its comforting to get some feedback .....