What is the Durability of Redwood?
- The living redwood has a high resistance to insect infestation and fungal rot, qualities that carry over to the processed wood. The heartwood is particularly resilient. The lighter sapwood is somewhat less so, and the University of Minnesota’s Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series recommends not using particularly light-hued sapwood for outdoor building. Because of its decay resistance, high-quality redwood lumber is often used without additional chemical treatments that confer protection from the elements to other kinds of wood. Typically the rich, brown-red of freshly laid redwood timber weathers, untreated, to a silvery gray color.
- The durability of redwood, coupled with the natural beauty of its grain, make it a popular choice for structures used outside. The lumber is often rendered into furniture for both indoor and outdoor use, as well as for the decks, patios and fencing. Historically, redwood lumber has also gone toward the construction of bridges, roof shingles and specialty crafts fashioned from burls.
- Redwood’s attractiveness as a building and craft material has long made it a sought-after timber tree. While overzealous lumbering practices in the 19th- and early 20th centuries decimated many virgin stands of coast redwoods, most of the remaining old-growth trees, still relatively extensive, are today protected in public lands, especially the Redwoods National and State Parks system. The commercial redwood industry centers around private lands and benefits from the fast-growing nature of the tree: The California Redwood Association reports that the coast redwood has the fastest rate of growth of any commercially used softwood in the US, with 30-year-old specimens often 130 feet tall.
- The durability so evident in high-end redwood products also helps explain the tree’s vitality in its native habitat, which is the southern fringe of the Northwest coastal forest stretching from southeastern Alaska to Northern California. This is the largest belt of temperate rain forest in the world, and the redwood groves receive plenty of wintertime precipitation. In addition to natural disease- and insect resistance, redwoods are resilient in the face of lightning-sparked blazes. Despite the heavy annual precipitation, redwood country experiences a reliable summer drought, and occasional wildfires are not uncommon. Redwood bark lacks the resins that make many other trees vulnerable to devastating conflagrations, and thus mature specimens tend to survive most burns. High shade tolerance and rapid growth allow redwoods to quickly edge above companion trees like Douglas firs and western hemlocks. With their impressive suite of defenses, these dominating canopy giants may live over 2,000 years.