I do not know why, maybe because they deal with forces of nature, but in my experience I have not found yet any NPS, BLM or USFS employee who would not go above and beyond their duties;True public servants many federal and state agencies should learn from. I assume, if it was wrong, by now somebody from USFS would have blown the whistle on false conclusions of that study.And some of us put little faith in any government study. Especially by a government that is in bed with manufactures that is in both party's interest to sell consumers hickory. It was just a good business practice. What else are you going to do with all that heart wood?
I don't doubt that. A lattice work or veneer of mineral deposits within hollow cell structure ought to function sort of like rebar in concrete. However, obtaining knot-free blanks and billets out of the interior of a tree (when it was much smaller and thinner and had branches nearer to the ground) is much more of a crap shoot than is the expected yield of '#1 select' material from wood nearer to the bark of that very same tree.A drumstick manufacturer called Los Cabos had the University of New Brunswick do testing for them regarding sapwood vs. heartwood and they actually found the heartwood (which they refer to as "red hickory") to be denser and tougher, which is rather counter to the conventional line of thought.