ethics

[joachimM]

Second, the English bowmen in days of yore did not use English yew (except that England owned the staves). England imported yew from Spain to make its bows.  English yew. according to what I have read, is no great shakes as bow stock.

English bowyers used spanish and italian yew because they had cut all their own yew, then the french yew and so on. As their hunger for yew grew, they had to search further and further to get it. This is the reason yew is so rare and endangered in many parts of Europe. though yew is in Belgium, with juniper, the only native conifer, it's extremely rare in the wild with just one extant population near the French border.
Most
 yew harvested nowadays are from trees planted in gardens and parks.

[Oglala Bowyer]

I've already harvested this fine piece of yew. It is now in my possession, class dismissed!

[sleek]

What happened to the millions of bows made during that time frame?

[Chief RID]

It has been said that your personal ethics is how you act when you think no one is watching or something like that. I have my troubles with ethics and I know there is someone always watching. "Try to do what is right and defend your family name cause if you don't stand for something you will fall for anything."

A yew tree. Cut it or not? Does it belong to someone else? Does it serve a greater purpose than a bow where it is? Since it is already cut, let the shaving begin!

[WillS]

Does it serve a greater purpose than a bow where it is?

I think that's the whole point here.  You can't ever know if it serves a greater purpose, because it could have sentimental value.  You don't know who planted it, why it was planted, how important it is.... And if you don't know, and it isn't yours to decide, you leave the damn thing alone.  Otherwise it's simply theft for selfish reasons.  Nothing more, nothing less.  You can justify it until the cows come home, using whatever analogy or "logic" you can think of, but you're still taking something that doesn't belong to you because you think it's worth more to you.

If somebody breaks into your house and walks off with your TV, they can say "I'd watch it more than you did" or "I needed a gift to give to my poorly wife who lost half her face in a freak rowing accident" but that doesn't give them the right to take it from you.