Stick building is a wonderful way
to build. It's how I've made my living
for almost 20 years, and it produces
some of the best houses in the
world. But it is getting increasingly
difficult to ignore the environmental
impact of this wood-intensive
approach to building. As our forests
are harvested on shorter cycles,
lumber quality has dropped. Every
builder has had to cast aside some
of the lumber taken from trees too
young to harvest. A shrinking supply
has also forced us to pay more
for quality lumber, particularly in
the larger dimensions, which have
reached record prices several times
in the last two years.
Despite these problems, our
home building practices have
changed little. Over 90% of our
homes