SW Alaska News

From March 25, 2023 post.

Picture a quiet, shady forest. Deep carpets of stair-step moss and soft decomposing twigs and needles dampen the sound of your footsteps. Sunlight reaches the forest floor only in lacy pinpricks. The humid air carries scents of musk and spice on every breath. As you look around, you see thick, buttressed trunks covered in stringy, red-brown bark, and as you lift your head, towering above you are swooping boughs of evergreen, with delicate, almost fern-like twigs branching into the dense canopy. 

This is Western Redcedar (Thuja plicata), also known as Arborvitae, or the tree of life and is one of the most valuable components of Alaska’s forests. This tree can be found along the Pacific Coast from California to central Southeast Alaska, and inland through British Columbia extending all the way to the Idaho panhandle. This tree plays a central role in Indigenous cultures all along the coast of the Pacific Northwest. It is viewed as a life-giving tree due to the many ways it provides for traditional uses: fiber for weaving, wood for building materials, medicine, and habitat for other animals, to name just a few. The wood of the Western Redcedar is extremely resistant to rot, which makes it an excellent choice for building outdoor structures and for the long-lasting, iconic totem poles of Southeast Alaska.

Learn more about Alaska’s Forests: https://forestry.alaska.gov/ 

#AlaskaCooperativeForestry

Original source can be found here.