Raul’s Blog

This photo comes to us from Penny W. in Chico, California. Penny is the creative inspiration behind our beloved “Penny’s Lounger.” She suggested the design after visiting a resort in Mexico some years ago.

Starring in the photo is Penny’s dog, Camille, a 9-month old Red Standard Poodle. Reports Penny:

The pad is wonderful, as she will run around the yard — muddy feet — and jumps up on the lounger and sleeps for a couple of hours — sunbathing! Obviously, we redheads love to sunbathe! Every evening, I hose the pad off and VOILA!!! Once again it looks brand new — waiting for the next day. I haven’t even had time to spend on it.

Hmm… It sounds like we might need to rename it “Camille’s Lounger.”

Camille the Red Standard Poodle poses for the camera on a Penny's Lounger with Sunbrella Cushion

If you have a photo of your own adorable pet making use of your Forever Redwood furniture, please don’t hesitate to send it along!

Ed Homer, a filmmaker and supporter of restoration forestry, sent us a link to one of his recent videos:

The video shows a great example of the best of what the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has to offer. Most FSC-certified forests have lower standards than those of the gentlemen’s lands in the video. (Merve Wilkensen, the forester in the video, is one of the people I studied years ago. He is a pioneer in the field.) The 10% set aside for Old-Growth trees is fantastic. It’s not required by FSC, but this is the key to restoring and not just sustaining lands.

In fact, we’re meeting the same higher standards here at Old-Growth Again. The key is to cut at a very low rate that allows the forest to bring back the Old-Growth on its own over time. We also set aside 5 trees per acre to never be cut. Combining the very low cut rate and the set asides is the key to restoration forestry. Restoration forestry exceeds sustainable forestry standards because of the lower rates of cut set in perpetuity.

Thanks to Ed for the video link and keep up the good work!

We are always willing to do a custom new design. Custom designs, custom options & details and custom sizing are the secrets to our ever-expanding product selection. We don’t run a factory. We operate an old-fashioned wood working shop. Everything is made by hand and will always be done this way. This gives us the flexibility to say yes as often as possible. Sometimes we can’t get it done, but usually it leads to interesting new items we wind up adding to our website’s offerings.

If you have a design you’d like made, send it over. It will take a bit of time, but odds are we’ll come up with a beauty.

In this photo our in-house master carpenter Tony Toledo and I are working out ways of strengthening and refining the basic skeleton of an arched hammock stand design (next to us on the table).

This is the finished product, which we've named the Noah's Arc Hammock.

Robert Galusha is a good friend of Forever Redwood and is the designer behind some of our most successful products. Based in Kingman, Arizona, he offers fine furniture made to order. From reinterpretations of classic styles to the freshest of contemporary pieces, his award-winning work has appeared in many design publications including the cover of “Architectural Digest.” If you are interested in commissioning a unique accent piece or a whole room full of furniture, we highly recommend his services. You can learn more by visiting www.RobertGalusha.com.

Boxes of Redwood furniture ready to ship across the country... and even farther

Yes, you can have large wood furniture items shipped cross-country (or across the oceans) to your door without a glitch. We do it every day. Since 1995, Forever Redwood has shipped thousands of items of all sizes all over the US, Canada, and occasionally Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Our shipping partners (Fed Ex, UPS, YellowFreight and other LTL carriers) are fast and reliable. In the rare case something gets dinked, we remake replacement parts at no cost and ship within a week.

If you order Forever Redwood furniture, you will never receive boxes full of hundreds of parts to decipher. All small items ship fully assembled (that includes Planter Boxes up to 1′ W x 1′ H up to 8′ L, Swing Seats, Mini & Tiny Foot Stools, all the folding items, etc.). For larger items, we design to minimize re-assembly (ship many sections already assembled). For example, Dining Chairs usually ship in 4 to 6 parts—just enough to limit the size of the packaging and keep shipping costs down. Even many large items are less than 10 parts, for example, the 8 ft Patio Table ships in 8 parts.

If you’re curious how an item is re-assembled, download the PDF instructions for it at:
www.foreverredwood.com/assembly.html

Small orders usually ship Fed Ex Ground. Large items (like picnic tables, swing sets or pergolas) ship in a crate with padded boxes strapped in it via LTL carriers like FedEx Freight or UPS Freight. Once your crate arrives at the distribution center near you, you’ll be called to set up a convenient time to deliver. Crates are dropped off on your driveway. Then, you can unscrew the crate and move the individual boxes easily (no box weighs over 90 lbs). We ship from San Diego, CA.  If you live in CA, we can assemble your order for a small extra charge.

If you live in California, we can hand-deliver your furniture and even assemble it for you!

When your order ships, you’ll receive tracking information by email to know when its arriving. Standard orders ship in 4-6 weeks, with FREE SHIPPING available on orders totaling over $1000 within the Continental U.S. If you need your items sooner, consider our Priority and Rush shipping options. We also ship to Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, and other countries. We’ve shipped our furniture to Italy, Japan, even Dubai.

To find more details about your shipping options, please visit:
www.foreverredwood.com/shipping.html

Forever Redwood operates an old-fashioned woodworking shop. Every item is made by hand to the highest standards and can be customized to meet you spatial or creative needs. Old-fashioned hand-building is becoming a lost art. Even though we may be far away, consider us your personal woodworking shop.  If it’s made of wood, odds are we can do it!

An article published this week in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat details a level headed approach to forestry. The details mentioned are a close reproduction of the practices Old-Growth Again uses to begin the restoration process of cut-over lands. It’s heartening to see this becoming more generally practiced and other restoration outfits popping up around the country.

I think once the national forests lands mentioned are restored, the forest service contracts eventually issued will in all likelihood cut at a faster rate than we are doing. Under Forest Stewardship Council guidelines mentioned, they will probably cut about 2% per year versus our 1% per year limit. This is the basic difference between Sustainable Forestry and Restoration Forestry. But, at least in the initial phase, they are both nearly identical since there is little timber that can be harvested and only the thinning, planting and soil management aspects can be addressed.

This aside, the article details a significant turning point in forest management in the Northwest.  It is hopefully the long-awaited shift in the political wars of the past 30 years that pitted ecology vs economy instead of ecology and economy as we’ve been struggling to demonstrate since 1994.

Here’s the intro to the article, with a link to read more….

(AP Photo/Jeff Barnard) In this May 15, 2009 photo, Lomakotsi Restoration Project crew supervisor Aaron Nauth stands on the stump of a centuries old tree and looks over an old clearcut that his team has thinned on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest outside Takilma, Ore.

TAKILMA, Ore. (AP) — On a steep slope of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, a crew of young men with chain saws and hardhats worked their way through an old neglected clearcut, cutting brush and young trees and piling the remains to be burned later.

Freshly trained and closely supervised, the crew took care to leave behind volunteer sproutings of dogwood, madrone and huckleberry as well as the sugar pine and Douglas fir planted here 20 years ago. The pattern is designed to grow into a healthy forest less vulnerable to wildfire and better for fish and wildlife, rather than just turn out timber.

The House Hope Stewardship Project, taken off the shelf with $1.4 million from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package, will thin and restore 890 acres.

It’s a tiny fraction of the 60 million to 80 million acres the U.S. Forest Service estimates need it nationwide, but people here feel as if this is a start — not only to grappling with the growing threat of wildfire in a warming climate, but in healing rifts between environmentalists, the timber industry and the Forest Service that have left the national forests in limbo.

Read the full article »

Great news. The Mexican government of the state of Baja California has awarded Old-Growth Again (makers of Forever Redwood furniture) the certification of officially being a “safe enterprise” (Empresa Segura). That means we met a series of standards to maintain safe working conditions for our employees. We’re very proud of all our employees whose diligence made this possible, and we commit ourselves to continually meeting the goals of workplace safety along with exceptional quality in our hand-crafted Redwood furniture. We also offer our thanks to the government of Baja California for the recognition and support.

Raul Hernandez (CEO of Old-Growth Again Restoration Forestry, Inc.) receives the "Empresa Segura Award" (Safe Enterprise Award for Employee Safety) from representatives of the State Government of Baja California. April 1, 2009; Ensenada, Baja California.

Minnesota winter? Not a problem for a Forever Redwood swing!

Have you signed up for our email list yet? Not only will you get updates about our Restoration Forestry work and Redwood furniture, but we offer special discounts and promotions only to this list. These offers can’t be found on the site (or on this blog!). Click over to sign-up and then enjoy the latest post.

We have been shipping our “Forever Redwood” outdoor furniture sets to the toughest climates in the U.S. and Canada for over a decade now. We offer decay warranties of up to 30 years on the entire line regardless of how harsh the outdoor weather is. No other outdoor furniture line has warranties like it.

We are often asked if our sets will really hold up that long. They will. And, with a bit of TLC, they’ll last much longer.

Because of the quality workmanship and materials used, Forever Redwood sets are a bit more upfront than most of our competitors. But, you save money by NEVER having to replace them.  Besides some surface fading, you can expect your Forever set to last for decades without maintenance.  And, if you ever have a problem with a Forever Redwood product (like a tree falling on it…), just contact us and we’ll ship replacement parts to you at minimal cost.

There are 3 reasons we confidently offer the long decay warranties. First, Redwood is extremely decay resistant. Second, Forever Redwood is built the old-fashioned way using thick-timbers that are no longer available in the marketplace. And, lastly, Forever Redwood is fastened with Stainless Steel hardware.

Combining generous amounts of the highest quality lumber with the best hardware insures your furniture will last decades in any outdoor weather. Yes, Chicago winters, Florida’s summers, Arizona’s 110 degree dry heat or the stormy high and dry Colorado Rockies.

To read more about our forestry practices, please go to:
http://www.foreverredwood.com/restoration-forestry.html

To read more about our four grades of wood, please go to:
http://www.foreverredwood.com/wood.html

As always, comments and questions are welcomed.  Thank you for your interest in Forever Redwood.

This article is shared courtesy of ARA Content.

How A Forest Products Company is Making a Real Environmental Impact

Little Raulito enjoying a Forever Redwood Kid's Rocking Chair. Behind him stands a Large Vase Planter. Proceeds from the sale of Forever Redwood products go toward our Redwood forest restoration work.

(ARA) - With the growing popularity of green building practices, more companies are incorporating environmental and sustainability policies. These are all positive steps toward reducing the impact of global warming and caring for our earth. But what do you really know about a product you buy that is labeled green? Is it really environmentally friendly, or is it just a marketing scheme? And how much of a difference is it actually making?

“Green and sustainable forestry practices are a step in the right direction. But even the most stringent standards, those certified internationally by the Forest Stewardship Council, are only a modest step away from the large-scale deforestation practices that were prevalent until recently,” says Raul Hernandez, founder of Old-Growth Again, an organization dedicated to restoring logged forestlands back to their ancient form.

Hernandez goes on to explain the problem is sustainable forestry does little in the way of restoring large and ancient trees overtime. Without these trees as a significant portion of working forests, the effects forestlands can have on global cooling are limited. Under sustainable forestry practices, lands are cut at rates of up to 30 percent per decade. At this rate of cut, a forest is “sustained,” but it’s maintained as a young forest in perpetuity with trees rarely exceeding 80 years of age.

OGA is changing this by practicing a much higher “Restoration Forestry” standard. Restoration forestry involves many practices including limiting the rate of cut to a maximum of 10 percent in any one decade. This conservative rate allows for a growth increase of standing lumber at rates of approximately 20 percent per decade, allowing the forest to mature so that a large amount of the forest canopy will once again be dominated by trees over 200 years old (the definition of old-growth).

Why is this important? “Depending on the tree species and geography, forests managed on a 200-year cycle sequester 3 to 4 times more carbon per acre than forests managed on 60 to 80 year cycles,” says Hernandez. “Restoration forestry practiced on a global scale would cause dramatic global cooling to take place while growing the highest quality lumber.”

Rainbow over Forest Redwood forestlands in Annapolis, CA—lands we are restoring through your furniture purchases

How can you help? With the nice weather, more people are spending time outside enjoying their yards. If you are looking to add some new furniture and decor, consider Forever Redwood, OGA’s thick-timber products, which help fund the organization’s mission. Add some new lawn furniture, a gazebo or pergola, a swing or just some planter boxes. The look and design of the products is a throwback to another era when lumber was plentiful and of extremely high quality.

Besides supporting a good cause, redwood products are very long lasting and can be left outdoors for decades in elements such as harsh sun and snow, without maintenance. You can choose from three grades of redwood for Forever Redwood products — young, mature and old-growth. Half of the lumber used is from salvaged material left on the forest floor when the forest was first logged in the 40s and 50s. This wood is carefully inspected, and because of its high quality, much of it is in great shape and can be used, a testament to the longevity of the old-growth lumber. The other half comes from careful harvesting of the forest.

“One of the biggest aspects of global warming is deforestation. If forest lands are managed so they sequester carbon as they did before the high levels of harvesting, a big part of global warming equation would be eliminated,” says Hernandez.

To learn more about Forever Redwood furniture and products, and how old-growth forests are helping counteract global warming, visit www.ForeverRedwood.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content