Why no new longleaf?
In1700 a vast, virgin forest of longleaf pine—approximately 90 million acres—ranged from South Virginia to East Texas in a crescent encompassing much of the Southeast. Longleaf was used for building, for making ships, and as a source of turpentine. It grew tall, straight and strong. It’s easy to see why our predecessors wanted to used it so heavily; it’s just sad that they didn’t have the foresight to use it in a sustainable way. Most of that extremely old wood was harvested for lumber by the early 1900’s. Only a fraction of the old forest remains, mostly on federal lands. We will probably never again see a time when people wait hundreds of years for new wood to mature to this quality; longleaf pine grows very slowly. Re-using the old wood is a wonderful way to get great quality flooring without depleting any new resources.
