Timber Framing: A Real Application of Sustainable Forestry Management
By Anthony, 2020 apprentice
The deforestation problem that constantly threatens our global forest resources is one that we can overcome. To accomplish this, though, we must again learn to give our forests real value. The main idea here is that our forests must be more economically valuable in their current state than they would be under competing land uses. If not, they will be deforested.
Cattle Pasture and Forest,
Latin America’s diverse and astoundingly beautiful forests are constantly under threat. Here, deforestation occurs when forest owners decide that they can earn more money doing something else with their land. Forests are routinely slashed and burned to make room for agricultural systems, cattle ranches, infrastructure, urbanizations, and mining, to name a few alternative land uses.
One real strategy to conserve our precious forests is sustainable forestry management, a practice that selectively and sustainably chooses trees to be harvested within a forest in order to use their timber for construction, furniture, tools, and artisanal products. When well planned and carried out respectfully, sustainable forest management gives way to increased biodiversity within a given forest, offers employment opportunities in rural communities, and, perhaps above all, makes a forest’s continued existence economically possible.
Timber Framing
Rancho Mastatal is putting this plan into action. This Costa Rican-based educational farm offers workshops in diverse areas with an emphasis on sustainable community living in the tropics. One of their flagship courses, ‘Introduction to Timber Framing’ leads workshop attendees through the process of building a simple and elegant timber frame home. Starting with the basics, such as tool sharpening and laying out a timber using the square-rule method, the workshop ends in climactic style on raising day when the students see their work come to fruition. After many days of focused, methodical work chiseling and sawing, the timber frame home is assembled in a swift group effort in a single morning. The workshop is an ideal combination of focused individual development and group camaraderie.
Sourcing sustainable wood
The timber used for the construction of Rancho Mastatal’s timber frames originates from two main sources, both of which are sustainably and carefully chosen: selectively-felled trees from managed secondary forests, and trees planted specifically to be harvested for their wood. Additionally, the national context of the timber frame workshops is significant. Rancho Mastatal exists in a nation aiming to be carbon neutral by the year 2021. So far, large-scale national strategies have been based on a renewable energy sector, yet little has been done for real improvement in the construction sector. Here Rancho Mastatal leads the way toward carbon neutrality while conserving tradition.
To be original, one returns to the origins. Sustainable forestry management and timber frame buildings are ancient traditions that must be practiced in order to be culturally conserved. By integrating these traditions into a business plan through its educational workshops, Rancho Mastatal and its core team aim to realize an originality apt for modern times.
A nice display of the different joinery in one post
Stay tuned for the next blog Timber Framing Tips: The Things You Didn’t Know You Needed to Know.
Join us in 2021 for our Timber Framing Workshop to get hands on practice and instruction on this beautiful and traditional form of building.