I would strongly consider looking for wood dealers located on the western coast who would be more likely to deal extensively in the woods native to the region in addition to larger national vendors. Good deals are often found from hobbyist mills located in the native regions of domestic hardwoods. As I am currently located in northwestern Georgia, my knowledge of and access to such dealers on the west coast is limited, but again, the Internet finds all things if you are patient and motivated enough to look.
Woodfinder is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers. In your search for Madrone Burl, this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings. I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer in person to hand pick pieces at a comfortable price.
A significant problem with using Woodfinder is that many vendors are listed for woods that, upon further investigation, they do not offer. I don’t know if perhaps once they did and they didn’t update their listings or if some vendors use a standardized list of woods that include most everything conceivable with the idea that once you land on their page you will find something you want to buy even if you didn’t know it beforehand. It happens to me all the time!
Uses
By far the most common form of Madrone is burl veneer so it is safe to say that veneer is the most common use of Madrone. That veneer might be applied to almost anything, especially very high end interiors and other accent pieces. Madrone burl is also used for turning or carving small objects such as pens and other writing instruments and as knife handles or other small specialty objects produced either on the lathe or by carving.
Although it would never be the fate of burl wood, Madrone does make an excellent very hot burning firewood and charcoal.
Madrone Burl Natural Edge Sold From Exotic Woods USA
Sustainability
Madrone is not listed as being in any way threatened or endangered by the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices nor does it appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
To the best of my knowledge, Madrone is not subject to any special restrictions by any United States government agency.
I realize that inherent in working with wood is the killing of a part of the natural world that may be slow to return and if I become deeply concerned about this fact, I will have to find a new hobby. I hope that such a time does not come to pass or at least not any time soon. In part because I am concerned about legally and responsibly obtained wood, I am reluctant to buy from sellers outside of well-established and known vendors. I am highly unlikely, for example, to purchase any wood from auction sites, such as Ebay, because of uncertain sourcing and documentation, as well as the potential, even likelihood, of material being misidentified in order to achieve a higher selling price.
However, due to the commercial scarcity of some domestic woods, resorting to auction sites such as Ebay or Etsy may be the only way to obtain some desirable domestic, or in some cases exotic imported, species that are not routinely commercially harvested. The potential risks of buying in these marketplaces have to be balanced against the desire to work with a specific species of wood. That is inherently an individual decision.