If you trust carbon dating, one of the oldest western red cedar trees dates back 1,460 years to the 6th century AD. It was discovered in Olympic National Forest, in a part of the forest “unroaded” and undisturbed.

Fellow ancestors can be found throughout the Pacific Northwest—cedar trees that have outlived civilizations, predated the printing press and stood tall through the rise and fall of nations.

Scattered along the Pacific Northwest coast and into the British Columbia Interior, the western red cedar has been an arboreal ancestor to the land and to its Indigenous people for centuries. The lumber carries a legacy as old as the trees themselves, a resource so valuable that some Coastal First Nations regard the western red cedar as the “tree of life,” central to cultural and spiritual customs.

Its straight, colorful grain, red/brown/purple hues and natural luster make it unmistakable. For the builder who is seeking a material that stands the test of time, few species can match the western red cedar‘s old-world charm and resilience to the elements. It is, after all, what drew us to the wood.

But the story of western red cedar is more than a formidable ancient tree with many modern-day applications. And it is more than a story of Indigenous reverence or a story of how climate change and over-harvesting have imperiled its mossy, old-growth forests.

In our telling, the story of western red cedar is a story of a tree that is set in time but also timeless. What drew us to cedar, in particular, was the very characteristic of transcending time. Whether in an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest or the exterior siding of a house on North Carolina’s outer banks, the story of cedar is a story of a wood that never relents.

An Enduring Wood

The first thing you must know about the western red cedar is that it is a titan of the trees. It reaches skyward with a frame that can rise 200 feet in height and 20 feet in diameter.

The western red cedar is an evergreen that thrives in the moist, shaded environments of coastal forests and can endure a fluctuating water table and periodic flooding. It also produces thujaplicin, a natural compound with antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant properties that help the tree resist decay. Even after death, fallen western red cedar may remain usable for 100 years or more.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Photo credit: Picryl

The act of harvesting western red cedar was itself a ceremony, with Indigenous peoples paying respect by offering prayer and song to the tree before felling it or harvesting bark. These acts were believed to maintain spiritual balance and ensure that no harm would come to the person who cut it down.

At Tar River, our acts of honoring the western red cedar look different from the Salish, but they are rooted in the same reverence.

Sustainable Timberland Management

Today, there are fewer places in the Pacific Northwest that are unroaded and undisturbed, and western red cedar faces drought and risks of overharvesting.

And yet, the western red cedar has resilience encoded into its DNA. When droughts were an environmental anomaly, the western red cedar survived through a stress response called dieback: As water is conserved at the tree’s core, foliage browns and branches thin in an effort to conserve resources and extend the life of the tree.

Because of their deep roots, thick trunks and broad canopies, old-growth forests are better equipped to withstand drought-induced shock than younger ones. Older trees have more resources stored in their tissues and are often better able to access moist soil even during dry times, thanks to the carpet of organic matter that accumulates under their boughs.

The same traits that make old-growth forests ecologically resilient—and environmentally advantageous, because of the volume of carbon they store—make them attractive to the logging industry. But the Canadian government has worked hard to prevent overharvesting and to manage its timberlands sustainably—using a combination of policy, certification, Indigenous partnership and scientific research to manage their forests to promote sustainable logging.

The provincial government partners with Indigenous communities to implement some of the most sophisticated sustainable harvesting strategies in the world: protection of young trees from deer browsing, genomic selection to breed hardier cedar stock, responsible forestry practices that ensure less than 0.4% of the province’s forests are harvested annually and certification by independent, third-party organizations that audit forest practices and verify sustainable management from harvest to finished product. The province also prioritizes reforestation, having planted over 10 billion seedlings since 1930. For every one tree that’s harvested, the government plants three new trees.

The distribution of western red cedar in British Columbia. Photo credit: British Columbia.

We offer various timber frame packages, accent products and custom orders to suit a wide range of projects—both residential and commercial.

We help architects, designers, builders and owners create remarkable spaces defined by the timeless beauty of expertly crafted timbers.