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Here
follows an online report from Green Onion's research into the possibilities
of replacing the Indian red cedar known as Toon with North America's
Western Red Cedar, found among others in British Columbia, CANADA.
First we'll search for the trees themselves in the woods. Later on we
hope to get some specialists opinions and judge for ourselves. In a
later stage we will build some instruments and test.
Clicking the underscored words will open a window with illustration
or image!
COAST
BACK COUNTRY
ON OUR WAY TO THE ROCKIES
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
MID-SOUTH BC
Nowadays
arriving in British Columbia most will get of the plane in Vancouver
Airport. In older days one would arrive with the Canadian Pacific Railway
crossing the Rocky Mountains or get of board an Ocean Liner sailing
in from Asia.
Vancouver is the city on Canada's
West Coast, where many rivers from the Rockies and other BC mountain
ranges run into the Pacific Ocean. So starting our research here finds
us at the end of the line with the trees floating in on the rivers
from the back country where they were logged. We find many industries
processing the wood for building
materials in the coastal area. The air is filled with the aromas
of freshly sawn logs, predominately Cedars with their sweet perfume.
The Vancouver area is heavily populated by Western
Red Cedars, you'll find them in most backyards and parks as well
on the side of the streets in suburbs like Burnaby and Maple Ridge.
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From Vancouver
it takes less than an hours drive
to reach the nearest National Parks. In fact some start at the foot
of the mountains that surround the Vancouver area where wilderness takes
over the landscape.
The forests in these parks learn us already some interesting facts.
Between the vast growth of pines, cedars and hemlock (and mosses and
ferns on the bottom of the forest) you see many enormous
trunks, remains from the original rainforest trees, and judging
by their size red cedar. Most of the trees you see now are 'second growth'
after the giant
old trees had been taken down as early as in the 19th century. These
remaining cedar trunks
are that old and proof that the cedar wood is well resistant against
the weather. It also shows that from the inside they do rot, leaving
a hollow cylinder. To cut the trees the lumberjacks first made incisions
at about two meters high up the trunk to wedge in some planks. On these
planks they would stand to cut the tree above the broader lower part
where the roots start.
The forests around Vancouver
contain mostly Western Red Cedars and are of a fairy tale like beauty.
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When traveling
east towards the Rocky Mountains one encounters many other snow capped
mountain ridges which are already quite impressive. The forests are
immense. Though most typical are the lakes in between the mountains,
stretching along the valleys. They are rich salmon spawning grounds,
and trout is found here in big numbers as well. We stayed for a while
at lake Shuswap, a beautiful spot. The lake has different arms, one
is called Salmon Arm. Here we found another big industry
processing logs (among which with no doubt cedar judging by the
scents), transporting
them in large booms (a big amount of floating logs kept together
by a ring of logs tied together on the ends, looking like big rafts)
on the river out of the mountain logging sites. Just as we saw with
the industries in and around Vancouver
they use kilns
that are fueled with the remaining wood chips and dust from the sawmill
to dry the wood.
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THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS OF BC AND ALBERTA
Leaving the
lakes very soon the glacier
areas and steep mountain
roads begin. While populated areas start to become less, untouched
forest can be found more often. These do show us the original
growth from way back, when the land hadn't been discovered by the
lumber companies yet. In special reservation
parks trees up to 40
meters high and 2
or 3 meters wide trunks
stand side by side like the colons
in a gothic cathedral. The trees (cedar or hemlock)
that have fallen down
several decades ago are pretty well intact, though overgrown
with mosses, ferns and wild forest flowers, again showing their weather
resistance.
Closer to the Rockies cedars are found more seldom. Settling down
in Lake Louise we find that most of the trees are Lodgepole
Pines, ideal for construction because of their very straight stem.
The Western Red Cedar growths best in the wettest conditions, ideally
in very humid rainforests; the Rockies might not be wet enough for the
Red Cedar. The altitude
might also play a part.
Still the various
pines make beautiful scenery and contribute to the special quality
of the National Parks
of the Rocky Mountains, with their white peaks, grey rock mountains
and green valleys.
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Traveling
back to Vancouver our route follows the Okanagan Valley in Mid-South
BC in the direction of the US border. The Okanagan Valley is known for
its fruit and vineyards ... and is usually a very sunny place. These
fruit farms can be found through the whole of the valley and even further
North past Vernon and Armstrong
up to Salmon Arm. Besides fruit and grapes there seemed to be a lot
of logging businesses
in this region as well. We stopped by at SynergyPacific,
a company that makes laminated beams from small wood. From undersized
logs, up to 16 centimeters only, they make beams double the size (or
even larger or smaller) with added strength for construction. The woods
they use are almost all common types for BC: lodgepole pine, red cedar,
white pine, douglas fir etc. Craig Andrushko from SynergyPacific gave
me some advice and addresses to get more information on Western Red
Cedar. Typically, most of his tips would sent us to Vancouver Island,
where we were going to continue our investigation anyhow.
In the meantime it had become clear that Western Red Cedar was only
to be found in the milder wet valleys in BC, like around Lake Shuswap,
Lake Kootenay and Lake Okanagan as well as the Vancouver Bay area where
is little or no frost and wet soil on the mid-elevation of the mountain
slopes.
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