and condition of the soil surface after lumber removal 

 are all options of the lumberman. There is no 

 economic incentive for the lumberman or landowner 

 to prepare a seedbed, maintain seed sources and 

 seedling stock, or to promote wildlife habitat and 

 ecosystem values. 



Chamaecyparis thyoides reaches mer- 

 chantable age in 50 to 70 years, but the timber-lease 

 and marketing system prevents any feedback or 

 potential reward to the lumber company for policies 

 promoting regeneration of a tree that "pays off" after 

 half a century. Today's lumber company, like its 

 predecessors, moves on, this time to new leases. To 

 profit from his land, the landowner chooses a forest 

 or agricultural crop with shorter maturation time and 

 an assured market. 



In 1931 Korstian and Brush, whose work 

 (together with that of Silas Little) remains a primary 

 source for sound information on Chamaecyparis 

 thyoides, wrote: "The objective of good forest 

 management is to grow merchantable timber the 

 fastest, most economical way." Their thoughts re- 

 flected the straightfonward historical objectives for 

 those studying the white cedar - objectives that 

 were centered around commercial importance. 



Today, the charge to managers of our 

 protected wetlands includes matters as diverse as 

 the prevention of habitat degradation; the promotion 

 of wildlife values and esthetics; provision for public 

 recreation and education; protection of water resour- 

 ces, including water recharge, discharge, and 

 quality; the maintenance of gene pools and species 

 diversity; and the preservation of rare and threatened 

 species. These concerns coexist with the market- 

 place, both the market of cedar, and the market of 

 land values. 



With the change in objectives, it is therefore 

 not surprising that we still find no simple, definitive 

 guidelines for optimal management practices of 

 cedar wetlands. 



6.3 THE COMMERCIAL USE OF ATLANTIC 

 WHITE CEDAR 



Much of the following information on cedar 

 harvest and merchandising was gathered by D. B. 

 Ward (unpubl.), who treats the economic facets of 

 cedar harvest in detail. 



The most important contemporary commer- 

 cial cutting of Atlantic white cedar is in North 

 Carolina, with New Jersey and western panhandle 

 Florida as secondary centers (Tables 10, 11). The 

 wood is used where its properties of light weight, 

 resistance to decay, and fragrance are of value, as 

 siding and paneling for houses, planking for small to 



Table 10. Production of Atlantic white cedar: 1899- 

 1945. From data gathered by D.B. Ward (unpubl.). 



Area 



Year(s) 



Production 

 (million 

 hd ft/yr) 



Reference 



medium sized boats, fencing, decking, and shingles, 

 with smaller quanfrties used for such specialties as 

 lawn furniture and duck decoys. Ward (unpubl.) cal- 

 culated that the 1986 wholesale value of the man- 

 ufactured products was $10 million to $11.5 million 

 annually, with a forest inventory of standing trees of 

 between 170 and 180 million board feet. Annual 

 production is estimated at 19 million board feet (U.S. 

 Forest Service, pers. comm. to D.B. Ward). "Board 

 foot" (bd. ft.) is defined as 1 ft by 1 ft by 1 inch, but 

 the actual thickness is somewhat less. 



6.3.1 Lar ge-scale Lumbering 



Large-scale harvest, as practiced in North 

 Carolina where the great majority of cedar is cut, is 

 done with a gigantic amphibian feller-buncher (Fig- 

 ure 31 ), a machine specifically developed for harvest- 

 ing wetland cedars. The machine's tractor-mounted 

 articulated arms seize the erect tree, shear it at the 

 base and place the cut trees in parallel rows. A man 

 on foot then removes the tops and branches. A skid- 

 der seizes six to eight trees with its rear-mounted 

 grapple and, using the cut tops and branches for 

 traction, pulls the trunks to a roadway. 



J 



54 



