Developments in the Use of Red Alder

Pacific coast red alder is emerging from its “weed tree” status into that of a commercially valuable species. It grows rapidly with few defects on any uncultivated mineral soil in the low altitude coastal area of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, frequently invading Douglas-fir cutovers. In physical properties red alder has high strength and excellent dimensional stability, machines, nails, and glues well, and takes any type of finish. Its main uses at present are in furniture stock, woodenware, firewood, and charcoal. Recent experimenting has shown that pulp of this species can be mixed with softwood fiber to make tissue, label paper, and corrugating medium. In western Washington, an estimated 425,000 cords per year is available for use as pulpwood along with 50 million board feet of sawlogs, assuming a rotation of 40 to 50 years.

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