Posted this in response to a question on a boatbuilder’s forum…and thought it’s worth posting here, FYI for those interested:

The old-growth Hemlock-DF forests in my locale weren’t logged until 1920-1936…all the stumps are still there under the Huck to study. Those trees the McCormick Logging Company based at nearby Camp Union harvested then were 2-400 years old and 48-72″ diameter at breast height (DBH) DF and 12′ diameter WRC were the largest trees…based on our piddlin 60″ annual rainfall as opposed to coastal forests with 200″ of rain and bigger trees.

And there’s no shortage of old-timers around who spent their youth at Camp Union logging those trees…so the data is fresh….and rehashed over country-store coffee every day.

Only the choice trees were taken and those were bucked at the first limb…sometimes as few as two trees per acre…only the clear bole taken and the rest of the tree and adjacent trees left in the woods…to result in a massive forest fire in 1940 that’s quite visible in the growth rings of recently-cut trees today…in the form of pitch pockets.

So by that standard…I have plenty of “old-growth” DF trees left from 100-200 years old….and some W. Hemlock and WRC, which weren’t generally taken by McCormick, older than that.

As an aside, it’s hard to believe that with all that lovely old-growth WRC here, most of the original homes here (and in Port Townsend) from the late 1800’s-early 1900’s have Redwood drop siding from California.

Old-growth was a mixed bag just like 2d-growth is a mixed bag. Those trees shaded have tight rings…those trees opened to sunlight by fire have wide rings…most old-growth trees have a mixture of both wide and narrow rings. Those uneven-age trees partially shaded reach for the sun and are crooked. Old-growth also has a lot of rot, pitch and other degrade…2d-growth is superior in that regard, and a shaded 2d-growth log can be the equal of the best old-growth logs, only smaller.

Tight-ringed heartwood provides better durability…but is still subject to reaction wood and other degrades. Plantation-grown DF that’s fertilized and pruned can have straight, knot-free and degrade-free boles…but with wider growth rings and lesser durability and strength. The durability and strength issues can be overcome with modern chemistry and slightly larger scantlings.

If you’ve only bought lumber off of stacks and never had the opportunity to harvest the tree and mill the logs, you may be misled by never seeing the amount of inferior utility-grade and fire wood that comes out of even the best trees.

And I’m pretty certain these dynamics also apply to eastern hardwood forests….your history just isn’t as fresh.