MOUNT RAINIER The Forests of Mount Rainier National Park

WESTERN RED CEDAR (THUJA PLICATA)¹

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¹This species is known as arbor vitae in Glacier Park.

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The western red cedar (title page and fig. 5) ranges from southeastern Alaska to northern California. It is a common tree in the park. It occurs in patches along the river bottoms where the flat scalelike foliage is conspicuous among the needle-shaped leaves of the hemlock and fir. The bark is fibrous in appearance and may be readily separated into long strips. The trunks of the older trees are swelled and irregularly fluted at the base. The leaves are fragrant and the wood has a pleasing aromatic odor. Nearly all of the large trees are hollow at the butt. The roots spread laterally to a great distance, but extend only a short distance below the surface of the ground. The tree is easily overthrown by the wind and usually grows in sheltered localities. On account of the thinness of the bark it is easily killed by fire.

Fig. 5.—Two big Douglass Firs and a western red cedar (on the left) along the road up the Nisqually Valley, Mount Rainier National Park. Photograph by A. H. Denman.

The red cedar flourishes on fertile and well-watered soils near sea level, where it grows to an enormous size. In the park it is a smaller tree, 150 to 170 feet high and rarely more than 4 or 5 feet through above the swollen butt. It grows occasionally up to an altitude of 4,000 feet, but is a small and insignificant tree in the high mountains.

In the sapling stage the red cedar grows rapidly. The mature tree increases very slowly in size. It exceeds all other trees in the Cascades in longevity. Individuals more than 500 years old are not uncommon and there is a well-authenticated instance where the annual rings indicated a growth of more than 1,100 years.

While the red cedar forms no great proportion of the forest of the Pacific Northwest, it is peculiarly valuable to the pioneer on account of the durability of the wood and the ease with which it can be split into boards, shakes, and planking. The early settlers used cedar split by hand as a substitute for sawn lumber in flooring and finishing their cabins and for the tables and shelves with which they were furnished. The Indians hollowed the great trunks with fire and made them into canoes, some of which were large and seaworthy enough to be used on the Sound and in making voyages along the coast. They wove the fibrous roots into baskets that carried water and plaited the bark into matting. The wood of the red cedar is reddish brown in color. It is soft, light, and very brittle, but very durable. It is extensively used for shingles, the manufacture of which forms one of the important industries of the State. The clear logs are sawed into lumber used for siding, interior and exterior finish, moldings, tank stock, and similar purposes. Common logs are utilized for shingles. In many localities the entire tree is cut into 52-inch bolts, which are hauled to the mills or floated to them down the streams.

The western red cedar makes excellent posts and rails for farm fences. The young trees are used for telegraph and telephone poles.