Will the "r@1" please stand

lS THERE really a difference beI tween western red cedar grown in the U.S. and that grown in Canada? There are those who, depending upon which side of the border they're standing on, claim they produce the best.

"No, definitely not," says a spokesman for the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association. "Our members are located on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border, but they all produce the same fine quality."

Western red cedar is known for being light, split resistant and strong. A lack of pitch and resin combined with a high percentage of heartwood and a natural phenol preservative contributes to its reputation of being resistant to insects and decay.

Story at a Glane

Many woods go by the name cedar, but not all arc true cedars leamwhich arewhlch why some "cedats" at€ softwoods while some arc hardwoods.

Western red cedar (Thuja plicata) is grown only in the Pacific Northwest including southern Alaska and Western Canada (British Columbia). Actually a member of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), it is also known as Giant Arborvitae. The tree flourishes in wet mountain regions.

Examined under a microscope, the wood has about l0 million cells per cubic inch. This produces a highly workable wood with low shrinking and swelling characteristics. Thus, western red cedar is a very stable wood with superior paint holding capacity. Because it has a high percentage of dead air space, western red cedar has l2 times the insulating value of stone or concrete.

Western red cedar is described by the Western Wood Products Association as growing to a height of | 25 to 150 feet with a diameter of two to five feet. The Council of Forest lndustries of British Columbia describes western red cedar grown in its temperate coastal and interior forests as reaching heights of 60 m (about 200 ft.) with diameters exceeding 2 m (about 6-l12 ft.). They classify it as slow growing with the longest life span of any tree in the BC coastal forest. Over 200/o of the mature forest resource in that area is western red cedar.

Western red cedar lumber produced by members of the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association is graded by the rules of the Western Wood Products Association, the National Lumber Grading Association and West Coast Lumber Inspection Bureau.

The principalgrading rules covering western red cedar lumber manufactured by Council of Forest Industries of British Columbia members is Standard Grading Rules for Canadian Lumber, National Lumber Grades Authority.

Perhaps much of the confusion or differences of opinion about western red cedar result from the existence of other coniferous soft woods in the U.S. and Canada called cedar. Those who have researched cedar claim that the only true cedars (genus Cedrus) are the cedar of Lebanon, deodor and Atlas cedar, native to the eastern Mediterranean, northern Africa and the Himalayas.

Alaska yellow cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) grows along the Pacific Coast from Northern Oregon to Alaska. It is also called yellow cedar and yellow cypress.

Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) grows on the western Oregon and extreme northern California coast.

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is an aromatic wood used mostly for closets and cedar chests. Incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens) grows on the Pacific Coast.

South American cedar (Cedrela fissilis), related to Central American, Honduras and Spanish cedars, adds to the confusion. Often sold under the name of Brazilian cedar, British Guiana cedar, Peruvian cedar or cigarbox cedar, it is a hardwood found in Central and South America.