Tree farmers on the coast are switching from firs to redwoods, planting up to 20,000 a year.
Tree farmers in Lane and Douglass counties are switching from firs to redwoods, planting up to 20,000 of the higher yielding, more valuable trees each year.
Coastal redwoods put on volume three or four times as fast as Douglas fir, said Doug Wolf, a Douglas County forester. They can produce a “phenomenal” 5,000 board feet per acre per year. Plant them in blackberries, they shoot up through the fir-killing shade. Cut one down, and the stump will sprout a half dozen new trees. Let a deer or elk eat the tender tops, it can still grow up to 350 feet tall…
But the most compelling fact for those tree farmers planting coastal redwoods this year: Redwood logs are selling for $800 to $1,300 per thousand board feet compared with less than $250 for Douglas fir, according to Random Lengths, a wood products trade publication based in Eugene.
Read more at the Register-Guard.
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