I’ve longed admired Yasmin Nair’s work, and it was wonderful to see her in the pages of NYRA reviewing American Framing (#38/39). I generally appreciated the thrust of the piece but wanted to offer a comradely correction of sorts. In her review she hints frequently at light-wood framing resulting in the deforestation of old-growth forests. While it’s true that historically framing lumber came from whatever trees were nearby, and that this practice certainly wreaked environmental havoc when paired with western expansion, these days the vast majority of framing lumber comes from spruce, fir, and especially pine trees (collectively known as SPF lumber). These species are desirable as framing lumber because they grow fast and straight. Because of SPF silviculture, most framing lumber is not from old-growth forests. Rather, SPF lumber most typically comes from managed tree plantations. Even throughout the milling process, waste products are used to make other goods as well.
This is not to say that silviculture under capitalism is necessarily a beacon of sustainability—man…