Carrring <rut newuses for incense cedar

rl'IHOUGH it's not as plentiful as |. redwood or western red cedar, incense cedar has become an important niche product for a number of western manufacturers that sell across the country-and around the world.

At 7O-year-old Kubich Lumber, Grass Valley, Ca.,locally grown incense cedar is milled into lumber for decking, siding, and outdoor structures such as gazebos and planter boxes.

"This is some of the specialty stuff that other mills won't do," said owner Tom Rowe. He bought the business in 1996, after working there for two decades.

According to Rowe, incense cedar was considered a weed tree until the 1970s and was passed up in favor of redwood and western cedar. "Now it's kind of the hot thing," he said, with customers from as far away as Japan.

Customers are drawn to the wood's resistance to decay and its ability to withstand high humidity and moisture without shrinking away from fasten- ers. The wood also smells great and has a fine, uniform texture and light color that makes it easy to stain or finish. Other pluses include high dimensional stability with little warping or checking and its lighter weight-especially after drying.

At C&D Lumber in Riddle. Or.. incense cedar makes up about 25Vo of production and is used for interior paneling, exterior siding, and decking.

"Our latest offering is 5/6x6 decking, which is fairly new to the West Coast." said salesman Lee Greene. "Unlike redwood, which dries with raised grain, incense cedar stays smooth for decks." Another consideration, he said, is that incense cedar is usually priced a bit lower than redwood and cedar.

He explained that 5/4x6 incense cedar decking installed on 16" centers has long been favored on the East Coast. In contrast, 2x4 and2x6 on 24" centers was the norm in the West. Because of the rise of composite decks, which are also installed on 16" centers, builders and contractors have embraced the 5/4 format.

Siskiyou Forest Products, Anderson, Ca., buys incense cedar from C&D (and other companies), and resells it to manufacturers of shutters and rustic doors.

"We buy the upper grades, D & Better clear, then dry and process it for end-manufacturers," said v.p. Bill Duchi. "Availability of incense cedar is limited, so we focus mainly on redwood and cedar, but we have handled siding, too."

Availability is limited because the trees are rarely found in pure stands. Instead, they grow among confers such as Douglas fir, sugar pine, white fir, and sequoia-or among hardwoods such as California black oak, Pacific madrone, and tanoak. A North American native, it can be found in central-western Oregon, the extreme west of Nevada, and most of California into northwest Mexico.