Gifts from the trees.

Many people admire the beauty of wood and trees through objects they see every day - furniture, decoys, a treasured rocking horse, even the grain of a hardwood floor. Artists who turn wood into aesthetic and utilitarian treasures use a variety of methods, but there is one constant: a respect for the medium and a desire to impart that respect to others.

It's not surprising, then, that AMERICAN FORESTS counts among its members and partners woodworkers, artists, and wood products companies. And their efforts are both directly - and indirectly - helping others understand the importance of planting and caring for trees.

Varied perspectives

Idaho resident Bill Lewis applies modern-day technical know-how to an ancient woodcraft - and in the process imparts a message about the importance of sustainably harvested wood.

A computer-aided design (CAD) manager, Lewis began using a scroll saw, a machine saw with a vertical reciprocating blade, as an escape from his computer, where he spends as much as 12 hours a day. His favorite activity is using a single block of wood to carve a bird with a double-wing span, a European tradition.

"I enjoyed looking at other people's woodworking projects and I was inspired by many of them," he says.

That's when Lewis got the idea to combine his two areas of expertise. Using CAD technology, he designed more than 20 patterns for wooden fan-out birds, including a bald eagle, peregrine falcon, and long-eared owl. Now he markets those designs to other scroll saw users, who receive with their pattern a block of sustainably harvested wood grown in Idaho. Idaho pine, white poplar, and cottonwood are among Lewis' favorite working woods, but regardless of species he buys from a small horselogging and sawmill operation that is Idaho's lone certified supplier of sustainably harvested wood.

"I want to get the word out that I support this. We have to maintain our resources and be careful what we use." Lewis says his customers care where their wood comes from. Using sustainably harvested wood "gives the piece more actual value because it has history."

"Across the country we're finding local innovation is the driving force behind sustainable forestry initiatives," says Maia Enzer, director of AMERICAN FORESTS' community-based forestry program, which works with local partners to ensure that their voices are heard in the national debate over forest policy. "Facilitating change in the way we use forest resources must start from the bottom up, not the other way around."

Although Beverly "Bevy" Williams' environmental sensibility takes a different path, the Virginia Beach, Virginia, carver agrees with Lewis that "we need to see what is out there and what we might lose someday. I see cutting where it shouldn't be done. We need to be more cautious."

Williams, whose federally approved wildlife-handling license allows her to run her own backyard aviary, nurses and studies injured birds. Her work with wildlife was recognized by the group Woodsmen of the World, which named her 1981's Conservationist of the Year. The first woman to receive that award, Williams sees nothing remarkable in her efforts to coalesce an environmental and artistic ethic.

"I had a marsh, I had cages, I had land. I just don't like to see anything injured and just plain left," she says. "And it's helpful to me when I carve different birds - I can carve them closer to life from the start."

Caring for trees is an intrinsic part of carving for many woodworkers for a simple reason: without trees there is no art. "I hope I've contributed to saving wildlife and that my art will inspire other conservationists," Williams adds.

Seeing the forest for the trees 

For musician Garry Kvistad, founder and president of New York's Woodstock Percussion, the beauty of wood is in the hearing. Hence his attempt to replicate the musical sounds of the forest with chimes made from wood parts.

"The inspiration for wooden wind chimes came from ... bamboo windchimes, which give the effect of the drone of insects, the rustling leaves, or the tranquil sounds of flowing water," Kvistad says. The hum of insects is "a common sound around the world ... that could be here in upstate New York, the monkey forest of Bali, or the rainforests of Central America."

Traditional wood chimes are made from endangered bamboo, but Kvistad opts for cherry, birch, and maple - less rare, he says, but no less beautiful. Kvistad began modestly with a goal of bringing the "music of the forest" into people's homes. But his small business has burgeoned into a successful enterprise that encompasses dozens of chime styles and a large staff. Kvistad began searching for a way to give back to the resource that had given him so much.

Kvistad says Global ReLeaf 2000 gave him a way to do that. The "Chimes of the Forest," made from sustainably harvested cherry and birch, includes a "tree card" that customers may return to the company to have a tree planted in their name. So far the program has planted more than 20,000 trees.

Kvistad is not alone in feeling a responsibility to care for the resource that supplies his livelihood. In fact, many producers of wood products balance their profit-making with a heavy dose of environmental responsibility.

Woodbeam maker Challinor Wood Products, picture frame specialists Larson-Juhl, and hardwood floor producer Triangle Pacific Corporation all are partners in AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf campaign. And all are enthusiastic supporters of AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf 2000, an effort to plant 20 million trees for the new millennium. Their donations alone have resulted in the planting of more than 375,000 trees in ecosystem restoration projects on damaged public lands.

Woodstock Percussion's Betsy Garthwaite says her company's collaboration with AMERICAN FORESTS helps her and her customers feel good about using wood in their products.

"Somebody shouldn't have to hold a gun to your head to do the right thing. We want to be identified with these causes. Even customers who aren't crazy about wooden chimes sometimes buy them because they realize we're trying to do something good. It gives them a good feeling about the company and the things we stand for."

Larry Spinks, owner of Woodbridge, Virginia's Loft Bed Store, supports such public/private partnerships. His woodworkers build a line of furniture from sustainably harvested wood, including beds, desks, and tables. Although it's sometimes difficult to find certified wood, Spinks thinks it's worth the effort and says for many artists the best part about working with wood is simply that it feels right. "We wouldn't be here if it weren't for trees," says Spinks. "We have a deep spiritual bond with [wood] - it gave us fire, the wheel, logs, boats, and transportation. It's inherently beautiful material: light, strong, easily warped. Human beings have not invented anything even close to wood ... it's miraculous. I don't think there's anything on the planet as neat as a tree."

Janine E. Guglielmino is an assistant editor of American Forests.