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Mexican ironwood carvings
Mexican ironwood carvings is a handcraft that began with the Seri indigenous people of the state of Sonora. The wood comes from ''Olneya tesota'', a Sonora Desert tree commonly called ironwood (palo fierro in Spanish). It is a slow growing important shade tree found in northwest Mexico and the southwest U.S. The wood it produces is so dense that it lacks air bubbles and sinks in water. Traditionally, it was used for firewood and charcoal with some carving.
In the mid-20th century, the Seri had to move from their traditional home of Tiburon Island to the mainland, around the same time tourism was developing in Kino Bay. The first to carve ironwood for sale was Jose Astorga, who began with other materials and ironwood for utilitarian items. In the 1960s, he began carving ironwood figures which sold well to tourists and others followed. The craft began to be widely distributed in the 1970s, with non Seris beginning to carve, introducing animals from other areas as subjects, and the use of power tools. Carving, charcoal production and loss of habitat has put pressure on the ironwood tree, which the Mexican government declared protected in 1994. Although carving is still permitted, the price of the wood has increased and production has decreased.
==Ironwood tree==
The ironwood tree is considered native to the Sonora Desert as it is found only the states of Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur in Mexico and Arizona and California in the United States.〔 〕 ''Olneya tesota'' is the slowest growing and the tallest in the Sonora Desert, with specimens able to reach heights of up to fifteen feet, if near relatively stable sources of water. It accounts for a fifth of the desert’s biomass, mostly owing to the density of its wood. The shade provided by these trees is essential for a number of other desert plants and animals.〔 〕
The species is protected by the Mexican government because of its overexploitation and deterioration of habitat.〔 The plant is not considered to be in danger of extinction as its range is over millions of hectares and with thousands of trees, however its slow growth and use in handcrafts and firewood puts it in some danger. In 1992, before it received protection from the Mexican government in the 1990s, 21,000 tons of the wood was converted into charcoal. Ninety percent of this charcoal was exported from Sonora to the United States. Today, carving is not the biggest danger to the tree but rather the conversion of desert into pasture and cropland.〔〔 Other efforts to conserve the tree include the establishment of organizations such as Pro Palo Fierro, to develop ways to use the resource in a sustainable manner. Since the plant is found in two countries, efforts involving the US have included organizations such as Conservation International and the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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