WESTERN CEDAR (_Thuya plicata_)

Except for small swamp and river bottom areas, where the land is
likely to be more valuable for agriculture than for forest culture,
pure cedar stands are not common. Therefore it is as a component of
mixed stands that cedar is likely to become a problem in conservative
management. To some extent it presents a peculiar question by being
taken out alone for special purposes, such as poles and bolts,
independent of ordinary logging of sawtimber.

Western cedar is a typically shade-bearing tree and also endures
much ground moisture. Its occurrence as an under story and in swamps
does not indicate that it always requires such conditions, however,
but more often means merely that they protected it from competition
or from destruction by fire. Charred remains of very large, fine
cedar are often found on comparatively dry slopes where fire has
resulted in complete occupation by fir at present. Cedar's failure
to reappear there after removal is probably because its thin bark and
shallow roots allowed its destruction by a fire which was survived
by some better protected fir seed trees. Nevertheless, cedar must
be classified as a moisture-loving species and occupies dry soils
only in coast or mountain localities where there is a compensating
heavy rainfall.

Reproduction and management of western cedar have not been sufficiently
studied to warrant very positive conclusions. This neglect is probably
due to a wide belief that in spite of its present commercial importance,
its place in the future forest will be small. It most commonly occurs
with other trees in heavy stands, which make the preservation of any
young cedar difficult because of the destructiveness of logging. Being