Hawaiian KOA Tonewood is Sustainable

“Hawaiian KOA Tonewood is Sustainable” is the second installment in our six story series about producing sustainable tonewoods, which is currently defining the global availability of the woods suitable for the manufacturing of string instruments.

Building an acoustic guitar means considering the tonal balance of the wood as much as any structural properties. Guitars are traditionally made from several different tonewoods. In select cases, however, the guitar body can be made from just one wood. It has to be stiff and light enough for the soundboard (the top of the instrument), yet flexible and hard enough to be bent to make the back and sides. This delicate balance makes single-wood bodies rare and difficult to design. The Hawaiian koa tree produces wood with all these qualities, and has the potential to be harvested sustainably. The reddish wood is very similar in strength and weight to that of Black Walnut.

Over-harvesting and clearing land for other uses since the mid 1950s diminished koa forests, as wood has traditionally had a lower market value than cows and farming. Because of this, many native forests were converted wholesale to pasture and commodity production. Good koa lumber became scarce.

Koa (Acacia koa) grows exclusively on the Hawaiian islands of Hawaiʻi, Molokaʻi, Maui, Lānaʻi, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi, where it grows at elevations from 330 to 7,550ft. Its name in Hawaiian means brave, bold, fearless, or warrior. In regular forest surroundings they grow anywhere from 50 to 80 feet tall and a spread of 20 to 40ft; in deep volcanic ash however the Koa can grow to a height of 100 feet and a spread of 125ft!

The Koa is the most commercially important tree species on the islands. In this biodiversity hotspot in the Pacific, koa is also crucial to the survival of many species found nowhere else on Earth. Hawaii’s forests are home to more than 10,000 unique species and one-third of the plants and birds on the U.S. Endangered Species List. But due to the invasion of non-native plants and animals, habitat loss, and deforestation, only 10 percent of the koa forests that were present when the British explorer Captain James Cook arrived on the islands in 1779, are still standing.

Koa was historically used in the fabrication of outrigger canoes, dating back to the first Polynesian settlers on the islands, and later in the first surfboards. The tree has long been a symbol of native Hawaiian culture and identity. The wood, besides its quality as a superb tonewood, is also sought after in artistic wood carving and furniture manufacturing.

Guitars made from Koa became an innovation of the early 19th century, when Mexican cowboys known as paniolos (from españoles) came to the islands to help wrangle livestock. They brought their own language and culture, including their guitars. Followed by Portuguese fishermen from the Atlantic island group of Madeira in the 1870s who brought their small guitars, upon which native Hawaiians in the decades after, combined elements of these Spanish guitars and Portuguese steel-string instruments to craft their own instruments out of koa, including the slack-key guitar and the ukulele. These koa instruments are intrinsic to the enduring sound of Hawaiian popular music.

That characteristic island sound got a boost during the Hawaiian Craze of the 1920s, which spurred a consumer appetite for Hawaiian products on the U.S. mainland. Demand for koa has steadily increased since then, far exceeding the small supply currently available. Cherished by woodworkers worldwide for its shimmering appearance, koa has found a new market as a component of guitars. It is quickly gaining attention as an alternative tonewood to the traditional Sitka spruce (which we covered in the first installment of this blog series), and sales rose after country-pop icon Taylor Swift began playing a koa guitar in 2006. This new demand has been accompanied by significant interest in the reforestation and sustainable harvest of koa.

As of recently instrument manufacturers are envisioning Hawaii as a possible domestic source of exotic hardwood. Hawaii’s adherence to U.S. forestry and trade laws gives Hawaiian-grown koa an advantage when compared to tropical hardwoods from conflict- and corruption-ridden countries.

The Paniolo Tonewoods Project

In 2015 Taylor Guitars joined Pacific Rim Tonewoods in the Paniolo Tonewoods project in Hawaii, which seeks to establish sustainable sources of koa in the islands. The joint venture is also researching the eventual cultivation of valuable mahogany, rosewood and ebony in Hawaii.

The project is still in its infancy, but promising genetic research is being carried out at the University of Hawaii and on the 30,000 acre Haleakala Ranch on Maui, which is already producing quality koa tonewood from 30-year-old plantations. In fact, there have already been several high-quality guitars made from this tonewood, according to Steve McMinn, founder of Pacific Rim Tonewoods. McMinn is contributing his expertise as a leading tonewood supplier to the project and believes that “good science, careful forest management, and collaboration with local businesses and organizations may well result in koa reforestation, more robust native ecosystems, and a steady source of koa for musical instruments.”

Native only to Hawaii, Acacia koa is one of the most important trees in its forest. It uniquely combines fast early growth with longevity and size. It is this quick growth, combined with its unique color and cultural significance that makes this tree special.

Modern koa tree cultivation methods used by Forest Solutions have made native tree plantations viable in Hawaii, reversing decades of decline in native forest cover. Early rapid growth combined with superb wood quality make koa ideal for reforesting temperate lands throughout the islands and proving that Hawaiian KOA Tonewood is Sustainable.

Kala Artist Hawaiian Corey Fujimoto with a beautiful classical performance

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