As a longtime supporter of the Rainforest Alliance Roseanne Cash was presented with a Smart Wood guitar in a 1996 benefit concert for the protection of remaining rainforests. As Miss Cash gently fingers the strings on her new guitar she explains, "Musicians take their instruments seriously, each one has its own life. If its made of wood, the tone is affected by the way the material was aged and worked and then by how the musician has played that instrument over the years." Smart Wood, a program designed by the Rainforest Alliance, is the label afforded to sustainably harvested wood products. Smart Wood Guitars were created by CEO Henry Juszeiewicz of Gibson Musical Instruments. Today the gleaming faces of guitars like Cash's comes from Maple trees supplied by the Menominee Tribal Enterprises (MTE). MTE manages 235,000 acres of tribal land within the state of Wisconsin. Robert Brander, an ecologist walks through the tribal lands remarking at how the forests seem so untouched. Since logging began in 1854, the MTE have harvested over 2.5 billion board feet, which is the equivalent of removing the forest three times over. The method of forest management leaves more trees today than when logging first began in 1854. The trees standing today are of the highest quality, so superior that forest products engineers had to create a new lumber grade designating the product as better than the customary top classifications. MTE also maintains twice as many jobs as other conventional operations of its size. When selecting trees for harvesting MTE recognizes the importance of securing quality habitat for all the forests inhabitants, nutritious aspen buds for grouse, dry grassy clearings for deer and butterflies. People from around the world come to the MTE woodlands to learn and observe how to treat the land and still harvest for commercial profits.
Here is a link to the Menominee Woodland
http://www.mtewood.com/
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