THE BEDELL TONEWOOD CERTIFICATION PROJECT DOING THE RIGHT THING NEVER SOUNDED BETTER
GUATEMALA MADAGASCAR HAWAII TILLAMOOK, OREGON
Traveling to the Mayan Biosphere in northern Due diligence of the Madagascar rosewood Visiting The Big Island in Hawaii, Tom joined We don’t need to travel to the far end of Guatemala, Bedell established a partnership trade uncovered a total decimation of the Jorma of Winkler Woods to locate dead koa the globe to source the fnest, sustainably with Custosel, a conservation cooperative rosewood forests and illegal harboring and trees for his guitars. It is impressive how the harvested tonewoods for our instruments. For that selectively harvest Honduran mahogany, exporting of Madagascar rosewood even Hawaiian government is enforcing permitting two decades Cyril Jacob has been rescuing insuring sustainability while supporting the though there is a worldwide supported CITES and harvesting controls to protect the endemic tonewood-quality trees from going to waste, livelihoods of the 85 families living near & imposed total export ban. Following his trip to koa forests that thrive between 300 and 7,500 either from rotting on the forest floor, or from among the forest. Supported by the Rainforest Madagascar, Tom Bedell committed to using feet above sea level on the Hawaiian Islands. being processed into garden mulch or frewood. Alliance, FSC, CATIE, & other forest stewardship no wood products from this impoverished All of our big leaf maple and walnut is salvaged organizations, Custosel individually harvests nation until governmental corruption is ended or individually harvested in our home state of old-age mahogany trees & traces all the wood and new sustainability practices are put into Oregon and is as important ecologically as any supplied to Bedell back to the individual tree. place and enforced. of our tonewood projects. SEBASTIÃO SPIEKERMANN
SOUTH EAST ALASKA
It is a crime that the US Forest Service allows the clear- cutting of 1,000 year old-growth Sitka forests. Bedell Guitars has joined with Brent Cole of Alaska Specialty Woods to salvage dead 4-600 year old Sitka trees and turn them into music wood. Each salvaged tree is marked for it's location 4 and every tonewood set is traceable back to it's tree.