Alaska Cedar

Alaska Cedar, also known as Nootka Cypress or Yellow Cedar, is a conifer native to the Pacific coastal region of North America, ranging from southern Alaska through coastal British Columbia into northern California, generally at higher elevations than the closely related western redcedar. It is a slow growing, long lived tree, often reaching 20 to 40 meters, with drooping branchlets and scale like foliage that has a distinctive unpleasant odor when crushed. The pale yellow wood is dense, fine grained and highly resistant to decay, and has long been valued both by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest for canoe paddles and totem carving and by the modern timber industry for boat building and outdoor construction. In recent decades the species has experienced widespread dieback in parts of its range, linked by researchers to reduced winter snowpack exposing shallow roots to freezing injury.