I can't imagine a more eco-friendly packaging . no synthetic materials , no expensive manufacturing - just using up some dead wood .

Wood is a renewable resource. The plastic that is used in most flashlights is made from petroleum or coal - neither of which is renewable, and both of which are toxic.

Wood is eco-friendly. People who think making things from wood is not a good idea simply don't understand how the environment works.

Using wood is only eco-friendly if:
1) It uses farmed wood not old-growth
2) Rate of consumption is less than or equal to the rate of replenishment
3) No harsh chemicals are used to 'cure' the wood

To Old Man Dotes, wood is only renewable if we consume it more slowly than we replace it. If we switched our economy to making everything from wood that would likely be disastrous. So people who think making things from wood is not a good idea do have a point, it's just a conditional point rather than an absolute one.

1. People are murdered, not trees.

2. If you truly care about the environment, learn something about it before you spout off about it.

3. The North American hardwood forest (which includes Maple) is the most sustainable, renewable natural resource on the planet. We grow more than twice the volume we use every year...and that's after natural mortality...and we've been doing it for at least the last 60 years. Look it up. Data is publicly available on US Forest Service website.

4. "Old growth" is a false argument created by the likes of this author who attribute "murder" and "hate" to the those of us that would use the forest sustainably for multiple products, including wood. In the hardwood forest of the U.S., we are currently managing the third or fourth generation of forests since European settlement. There is no agreed definition of old growth and further, "old growth" is not a steady state that can be preserved by roping it off. Forests are dynamic and the hardwood forests of North America are in a constant process of regeneration, growth, maturity and death (windstorms, lightening, fire, insect, disease, etc.).

This isn't made of maple, it mentions on their site that it is made of 'New Growth Beech Wood', which is a renewable resource... might want to check your info before you accuse.

Good catch, Javelin. You can even see the tell-tale Beech ray flecks in the picture.

It is beech, because i've cut down dying beech trees before (turned into mulch). Maple is much more like "marble", where as beech is closer to a mix of alder and oak. I promote the use of purpose grown beech and bamboo. Speaking of which, where's the bamboo flashlight? :)

- A