Red Cedar: Friend or Foe? Exploring Management and Markets

This video explores the pros and cons of Eastern red cedar trees. Known as an aggressive native, if not managed well, the species can spread and become a nuisance, potentially causing a negative impact on the landscape. Yet, if managed well, red cedars offer many benefits. Research indicates red cedars improve soil quality and play an important role in sequestering carbon. Red cedars are hearty and survive extreme weather conditions, providing valuable shelter and food for wildlife. The rot-resistant wood is used for stream bank stabilization and has timber value. Researchers continue to develop new ways of using red cedar chemical compounds, including uses for medicine.
Extension Agroforestry Education Team:
Diomy S. Zamora and Gary Wyatt
Featuring, in order of appearance:
Tom Sauer, Soil Scientist, United States Department of Agriculture Ag Research Service, Iowa State University
Nicholas Snavely, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Assistant Area Wildlife Manager
Gary Gohmann, Clearview Elementary School Forest Co-Chair
Andrea Kay Coulter, Clearview Elementary School Forest Co-Chair
Ken Ramler, Cedar Wood Carving Artist
Video produced and directed by Audrey Favorito

[@alessandrotozzi9246]

Charcoal of Eastern Red Cedar is very useful for making black powder. 🤠🧨

[@IsleOfFeldspar]

I love ‘em. They’re beautiful and can grow on poor sites. The wood looks and smells wonderful. I know they wipe out the apple, but apple isn’t native. I planted one near my front door and appreciate it every day.

[@thevagabondsageinthewoods]

I have 17 acres in Missouri in an old forest that’s been left unmanaged. There are many red cedars on my property and I absolutely love them. I’m currently removing small understory saplings of various types to allow my cedars to spread out. I’ve also cut away many if the lower branches because of the overcrowding. Its so beautiful against the backdrop of our pond. So much wildlife in and among our trees.

[@MartianArk]

Thank you for doing this

[@IsabelRodriguez-nv2ue]

Thank you very much for this video and the information shared about this tree. Good images and illustrations. Truly helpful in understanding its characteristics and very interesting.

[@e.miller8943]

As eastern and western red cedar are not cedars, but junipers, they share characteristics with other junipers. While they provide organic matter to the soil around them their "leaves" tend to not break down into humus and act as a deterant to grasses. Some birds and squirrels use the bark for nesting. The wood is brittle so that they don't do well ice buildup in the winter.

[@gnarmarmilla]

The birds brought me 9 of these via there droppings on my little half acre property here near the lower Kaskaskia river near Baldwin, Illinois. I love them, they’re so beautiful. It’s been amazing how they have been surviving in the under story and covered beneath some shrubs on my property, I think they are being sustained by an arbuscular mycorrhizal root network.
Thank you for the information, this is very interesting. I want to visit Minnesota, in so thankful that you people haven’t let people devour your forest like so much of the world. Please keep it beautiful and rewild the places that man has destroyed, for the sake of all mankind.
Peace and blessings to you

[@garywyatt1048]

Your welcome to visit Minnesota anytime. I think you will like the diversity in our various biomes and landscapes. www.dnr.state.mn.us/biomes/index.html Eastern Red Cedar is native to MN but can cause problems in native grass and forbs, prairie or restoration plantings. Enjoy your property.

[@KieraCameron514]

If you don't like it, make it into tongue and groove flooring and sell it to me.

[@charliemagoo7943]

Its a gas can with roots

[@getintothewildwithjeffruma8777]

When I have a brush pile to burn I like to put a red cedar at the bottom of the pile. You light the cedar and stand back.

[@Marta_is_here]

@@getintothewildwithjeffruma8777you mean juniper…this is not true cedar

[@Marta_is_here]

That’s juniper…it has juniper berries.
Why is it called cedar?

[@HoustonPaul]

It, and other American evergreens, reminded Europeans of the aromatic Cedars of Lebanon and other afroeurasian Cedrus species