Species Spotlight- Western Redcedar 

Photo credit: Greg Archuleta  

The western redcedar (Thuja plicata) is one of the most versatile, adaptable and resilient native conifers in the Pacific Northwest. Although it is not widespread near the Lower Willamette today, some populations exist on Sauvie Island, and historically it was much more abundant in the area. Sergeant Patrick Gass of the Lewis and Clark expedition reported "There is...a number of ponds below the mouth of the Sandy river; and about two miles from the Columbia the soil is rich with white cedar [sic] timber, which is very much stripped of its bark, the natives making use of it both for food and clothing."

While Gass may have incorrectly assumed that the trees he observed were of the same species as those found in his native Pennsylvania, he correctly noted that tribes of the Columbia River made extensive and varied use of its bark. Indeed, they still do; cedar bark is called 'khalakwati' in the tribal trade language Chinuk Wawa. Some of the many traditional uses of the western redcedar include baskets, canoes, longhouses, tinder, harpoons, buckets, medicine, and (when the bark is pounded into a soft fiber) towels and clothing.

When done properly, giving the tree time to heal between uses, western redcedar bark can be peeled from a limited area of the same tree many times repeatedly during its lifespan (up to several hundred years) without affecting its health. When a western redcedar dies, the rot-resistant wood can provide wildlife habitat for decades, whether it falls on upland soil, into a stream, or stands as a snag. It truly is the "tree of life".