Ranges from Alaska to Northern California, (G) but found prominently on Vancouver Island north to Alaska. (PM)
Alaska yellow-cedar commonly grows to heights of 50 m / 150 ft, with drooping leads similar to western hemlock. The flattened cedar fronds hang limp from branches, giving the tree a willowlike drooping nature and the nickname “Weeping”. Alaska yellow-cedar has small scalelike blue-green leaves arranged in rows of four, and unlike western red-cedar, yellow-cedar leaves feel very prickly when stroked against the grain of growth. Pollen cones are less than half a centimeter long, but seed cones start as small blue-green “berries” then developing into brown woody pinecones with 4-6 scales. (PM) Alaska yellow-cedar has a distinctive musty, bad smell unlike red-cedar, described colorfully as like “old damp menthol cigarette butts in dirt” and “old bongwater”, and the bark smells like potatoes. (DM)
Alaska yellow-cedar provides thermal and hiding cover critical for large ungulates and small mammals in old-growth forests. Alaska yellow-cedar is not preferred by animals as browse, and it is only utilized by black-tailed deer when population densities are high. Alaskan brown bears will feed on the sucrose-rich phloem found on the upslope sides of Alaska yellow-cedar trees in the spring. (G)
Alaska yellow-cedar is found in avalanche tracks, rocky harsh sites, wet sites with poor drainage, bog and muskeg, and grows up to timberline in a shrub or krummholz form. The tree is the longest-lived in our range, often reaching 1,000-1,500 years in age. (PM)
New World cedars (which are in fact cypresses) naturally evolved potent aromatic tropolones that imbue the trees with rot and insect infestation resistance. These tropolones enable these trees, including Alaska yellow-cedar, to reach great sizes and ages. Alaska yellow-cedar is remarkably rot resistant and durable even after death; much more so than the more prevalent western red-cedar. Alaska yellow-cedar flourishes in poor sites such as avalanche tracks because it can take advantage of the poor soil, but in more nutrient-rich soils, Alaska yellow-cedar is outcompeted by other faster-growing trees. Yellow-cedar is often found in northern slope ecosystems rich with devils’ club and sword fern. (DM)
Climate change takes its toll on all creatures, and Alaska yellow-cedar is no different. In the lower elevations of its natural range in coastal Alaska and northern BC, yellow-cedar has been experiencing a dieback. As winters become warmer, snowpack lessens and protects Alaska yellow-cedars’ roots less from moisture. When a cold snap inevitably hits in these wet conditions, the lack of protective insulation from the snow causes the tree’s shallow roots to freeze and does permanent damage. To survive these conditions, yellow-cedar requires either dense enough snowpack to insulate roots from moisture and cold or soil with good drainage. Sunny spells during winter when the soil is frozen kills the upper parts of Alaska yellow-cedar, causing the top of the tree to bleach white. These are known as “spike-tops”, and it is not lethal to the overall health of the tree. (DM)
Indigenous people of the Northwest used yellow-cedar wood in the construction of masks, bows, dishes, and bowls. (G) The Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlingit use Alaska yellow-cedar to construct canoe paddles, dugout canoes, and totem poles. The inner bark of yellow-cedar is finer and softer than the inner-bark of red-cedar. Northwest Coast Peoples would strip the inner bark, soak it, pound it, and weave it into bedding, clothing, and rope. Often it was mixed woth goatswool to create warm winter garments. (DM) Practically all Northwest Coast Peoples used the strong and straight-grained wood of Alaska yellow-cedar. The Salish on Vancouver Island would make canoe paddles, the Nuu-chah-nulth used Alaska yellow-cedar for ceremonial masks, the Haida used it for adze handles, digging sticks, and dishes, the Kwakwaka’wakw used it for chests, dishes, paddles, and fishing net hoops, and made a tea from young branch tips used to treat insanity and a kidney treatment with boiled spruce roots and Alaska yellow-cedar. Bows made from yellow-cedar were prized and the Saanich traded with mainland tribes to access these bows. Paddle-shaped pendants made from yellow-cedar were used widely among the Salish tribes in their ceremonial regalia. Some Coast Salish women chewed the green cones as a contraceptive, and other tribes regarded sweat baths with yellow-cedar as a cure for rheumatism or way to “scare away” a disease. Like many other plants, the Northwest Coast People believed the plants once had a human form, and Alice Paul of the Hesquiat tribe, shared a tribal story of the origin of yellow-cedar. Three young beautiful sisters were out picking berries, until Raven scared them from their berry patch by imitating the call of an owl. The three sisters ran away from Raven until they were halfway up a mountain, where the exhausted sisters changed themselves into yellow-cedars because they could not continue to flee. The luster of inner yellow-cedar bark and drooping branches are attributed to the silky hair of the beautiful sisters. (PM)
The US Navy used Alaska yellow-cedar to construct small craft during WWII. (DM)
Alaska yellow-cedar is a valuable timber species that comes with a high price due to its acid resistance, durability, straight-grain, fine texture, propensity to not split and check, and superb traits for milling. Wood from yellow-cedar trees is used in boat construction, marine pilings, greenhouses, cabinets, doors, window frames, and utility poles. Most yellow-cedar harvested is sold to Japan at a premium where it is an adequate substitute for their prized hinoki cypress used to build Shinto temples. In Europe and North America, Alaska yellow-cedar is a valued ornamental planting. (G) Most Alaska yellow-cedar harvested for timber is from Alaska and British Columbia, and most gets sent to Japan. In Oregon, yellow-cedar is the choice wood for hot tubs, and in Alaska it is the choice wood for fishing boats. (DM)
[1] Griffith, Randy Scott. 1992. In: Fire Effects Information System,. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/calnoo/all.html.
