The Western Red Cedar thrives in the Pacific Northwest. It is typically found in mixed conifer forests with Douglas fir and Western Hemlock. It can be identified by its flat, scale-like leaves arranged in fan-like sprays and its stringy, reddish-brown bark. They can grow to be 200 feet tall and 30 feet in circumference and live more than 1500 years.
Native people called the Western Red Cedar the “Tree of Life” due its versatility. They crafted everything from canoes, totem poles, longhouses, clothing, baskets, fishing gear, medicinal remedies and ceremonial objects from its wood and bark, making it a vital part of their daily lives and culture. Whole trees were crafted into well-known dugout cedar canoes. The Western Red Cedar is so well known for this that another of its many names is “canoe cedar”.
