What to do with a lot of Eastern Red Cedar

Greetings, I've lurked here for quite a while. My wife and I have about 100 acres of pasture and about half of it is/was covered with Eastern Red Cedar that has been growing for quite a few years. There are a lot of 4 to 6 inch diameter trees, but there are also a lot of 12 and 18 or more inch diameter at the base. I have cut trees over the past few years with a skid loader and a tree shear, but still have a lot of standing trees, and they tend to be the larger ones. Most people just pile them up and burn them to reclaim their pastures. My thought was that if there is any value there, perhaps I should be trying to make something out of all the trees rather than just burning them. However, I'm also not interested in spending dollars to make pennies. There are places where the trees were so thick they choked out all the pasture grass, and where I have cleared them, the grass is coming back. I don't have an accurate count on the trees, but I'd guess there's at least 4 to 5 thousand trees. Of course the number of larger trees is a lesser number. My thought is to prepare a number of logs and have someone local with a saw mill to mill them up into boards or planks and see how that goes, then perhaps I can make some educated decision on whether or not I should try to do much more with the trees. I could also have them ground into mulch, but not sure if that's really enough material to come up with a profit in the end. I could probably end up making fence posts out of quite a few of the trees if I want to put the labor into it. Any thoughts or suggestions you all may have will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hi there Pat Hemen. Around central Missouri Red Cedar is often used for fence posts and sells for around $10 for a 7 foot post 5 to 8 inches in diameter. I just missed a chance to buy a 30 foot long log that was 20 inches at the big end and 10 at the small end. While I was calculating my offer some one else bought it (DOH). Rough, green, Red Cedar lumber can be had for $1 a bd ft from a local survivalist with a sawmill. Red Cedar planters and raised bed frames go for $50 to $100 at our farmers market that gets traffic from young urban professionals . Every one in our family has cedar closets and chests made from wood harvested off of the farm. It is lovely wood. I have a friend who uses it for guitar tops.

Pat where are you located, if not too far I might be interested in getting 5 to ten log from you

Maurice ,glad you mentioned the guitar tops. I think the cedar tops were mostly on Flamenco guitars. I still remember seeing the girls
dance. I was about 3 years old and instantly charmed.

I didn’t see where you have your location (maybe I missed it) bit in areas where ERC is common the value seems to be relatively low compared to some species. With the natural-edge craze you might be able to sell slabs. I never advertise but when I was sawing a lot of ERC a neighbor wanted some for rustic outdoor furniture, benches and such. Another person wanted slabs for artistic reasons; one wanted a big piece for a mantel. All of these, plus the popular cedar chests and cedar-lined closets, suggest there may be good value if you can find a way to process cheaply and sell in quantity.

Before I got my sawmill I bought 4/4 ERC locally for about 30 cents per board foot, I assume it’s more now.

When I get ERC logs I generally saw most of it 4/4 for barn and shed siding, some 4x4s for posts, and some slabs and thick blocks for woodturning. However I can’t imagine any of those as significant moneymakers like wide clear cherry or some other hardwoods.

Like anything, finding the market is the biggest thing. Maybe check with some wood wholesalers in your area. Or ask some big kiln operators. Oh, I’ve also seen bales of compressed cedar shavings sold at the farm stores for animal bedding. However some studies recommend using pine instead. Many people and apparently some animals have allergic reactions to whatever is in the cedar.

Getting some milled as a test wouldn’t cost too much and it’s quite easy to saw and air dry.

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Originally Posted by Mel Fulks

Maurice ,glad you mentioned the guitar tops. I think the cedar tops were mostly on Flamenco guitars. I still remember seeing the girls
dance. I was about 3 years old and instantly charmed.

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If you enjoy Flamenco music check out Jesse Cook A Canadian guitarist. He is a wonderful player who's guitar sounds are amazing. The Bailaoea's with the clapping and castanets really drive the music.

My friend with the Eastern Red Cedar guitar will show up on the web eventually. It is a great sounding guitar. Soft Maple back and sides, Red Cedar top, not typical tone woods. The wood came from the town compost facility.

The location is Southeastern South Dakota, not too far from Yankton. SD. Thanks for all the great ideas and advice! Also, our daughter needs to rebuild a stoop on the front of her house. I'm not sure whether this type of is good for something like that or not, but if so I would have someone mill enough lumber to do that. In discussing this with our local lumber yard, they were not interested in air dried lumber, but preferred to sell kiln dried. For sure, one thing we can do is make fence posts, and we can actually use those ourselves to rebuild pasture fencing.

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Originally Posted by Pat Hemen

… our daughter needs to rebuild a stoop on the front of her house. I'm not sure whether this type of is good for something like that or not, but if so I would have someone mill enough lumber to do that. ….

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ERC can last a long time outdoors, especially if you get planks with all red and no white sapwood (not always easy due to the way the trees sometimes grow.) I’d mill it thick, at least 2”, perhaps thicker, build a stout frame and plenty of “joists”. For steps I like to put down compacted gravel, pour 4” or so of concrete, and build the steps on top.

I generally use BLO on wood outdoors, reapplied every few years.

You might think about investing in a bandsaw mill. I bought a manual Woodmizer almost 20 years ago, an LT15, with an extra track section so I can saw 16’ logs. It’s long paid for itself just for things for the farm plus the joy of sawing for fun and friends, e.g., woodturning blanks.


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A lot of larger cedar trees have decay in the center and some come with colonies of large ants!

JKJ

If big enough to make 6" x 6" or larger timbers they make great raised bed surrounds.