The Last Stands of Port Orford Cedar

Right now, in addition to logging, the POC is being attacked by a fungus-like root rot (Phytophthora lateralis). This root rot is depleting the POC population, causing irreparable harm to the Siskiyou Wild Rivers ecosystem. Phytophthora is spread by human activities like logging and road building equipment, vehicles and human foot traffic, to places where the pathogen may have not been introduced.

Port Orford Cedar is a conifer tree that can grow up to 200 feet tall and live for 200 to 400 years. This old-growth tree is one of the few tree species that flourishes in the heavy metal soils found in areas of the Siskiyou/Kalmiopsis forest region. POC grows very close to rivers and streams, providing an anchor with its root system for soil along the river. Since no other tree in the Siskiyou forest ecosystem fulfills this critical role, its disappearance and scarcity will have devastating effects on fish and other river-dependent animals and plants.

Port Orford Cedar’s beauty and strength, make it valuable on the commercial market. It is grown in nurseries and planted as an ornamental tree, and is also used for paneling, decking, fence posts, rails, stringed instruments and arrow shafts. Its boughs are used to make reefs and floral arrangements. Native Americans living in the tree’s limited range consider Port Orford Cedar to be sacred and value the tree for its cultural and medicinal properties.

Port Orford Cedar is also highly prized in Japan where it is used for home and temple construction. In the last 10 years, the amount of POC exported to Japan and other Asian countries has greatly decreased, but its value remains high with a single log selling for as much as $50,000. As the larger old-growth trees become scarcer, the value will continue to grow.

Port Orford Cedar is found on a checkerboard of public lands managed by the US Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), as well as private lands, making protection efforts complicated.

The disease that is attacking Port Orford Cedar spreads via living spores in water and soil. These spores are then widely dispersed by the mud on logging equipment like trucks, pulleys and loggers’ shoes, and by water running downroads, rivers and streams. Because the spores cross lands managed by agencies under different jurisdictions, protecting the trees requires an integrated multi-pronged process that involves local, regional, national and international governmental efforts, as well as private.

To effectively mitigate the spread of the disease, POC protection entails halting new road
construction, closing low-grade roads and ending logging and mining in areas that will affect Port Orford Cedar stands, including significant watersheds. Currently, none of these measures are being implemented by any government agency. Instead, the Bush administration is dismantling forest protection laws like the Northwest Forest Plan and is on a steadfast mission to increase logging in public lands.

Local efforts to protect these trees must be supported by national efforts to end commercial logging in areas containing Port Orford Cedar and in watersheds where the root rot can travel to the Port Orford Cedar stands. Other disease mitigation efforts are also needed, such as closing certain hiking access and washing any kind of equipment and boots before traveling to areas containing disease free trees and watersheds where water can spread the root disease. On an international level, Port Orford Cedar exports should be banned in order to decrease the threat to the species posed by the export trade.

Greenpeace is working to have Port Orford Cedar listed to Appendix I of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). An Appendix I listing would essentially ban the export trade in Port Orford Cedar wood products and eliminate the financial incentives to log it. A study by the World Conservation Monitoring Center clearly shows that POC qualifies for this highest form of trade control to help ensure its permanent protection. To expedite a CITES listing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could unilaterally list POC to Appendix III of CITES and stipulate a ban on the export trade.

Greenpeace also supports efforts to list Port Orford Cedar to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A listing to the ESA is the only way to ensure effective protection of this species on both public and private lands.