Editor’s note: This column was produced before Gene Wengert died in 2025. It is printed here in memoriam.

Q. Why do we here in Virginia see so many eastern red cedar trees along fence lines? Do they ever grow as large as they used to be?

A. The eastern red cedar tree has many berries with a seed in each berry. For this seed to sprout, the seed must go through the stomach of a bird where the outside shell is essentially eaten away. So, the birds after they eat a seed, fly to a fence line and make their deposit there.

Trees need a fair number of leaves (including needles, which are considered leaves) for photosynthesis and for production of sugars and starches within the wood. Along a fence row, the cedar trees are only fence-row-wide, and so when even small, they are able to use their needles to help in growing. 

Without much shade from adjacent trees, eastern red cedar trees do not have to grow exceptionally tall to obtain the sunlight they need. In fact, some farmers would prefer if the cedar trees were eliminated to increase water availability for their crops. 
As a result, there is not a lot of effort put into growing tall, large-diameter cedar trees along the fence row. Plus, fence wire is likely found in the butt log, which destroys sawblades rather quickly.

An interesting sidelight is that many trees and shrubs reproduce not by the seeds they create. Reproduction occurs by sending up new stems from the roots. One example of this is the aspen in the western Rocky Mountains. 

An entire hillside can all be from the roots of one aspen tree. These large acreages provide many seeds for the grouse and bark — with aspirin in it — for the cow elk in the springtime. 

Another example is the mustard plant, which can send out new roots in one year that are 25 feet or more from the “mother” plant. Usually, mustard is a big bush and sometimes a short (20 foot) scraggly tree. The story goes that in California, early Spanish padres planted yellow flowering mustard along the route between adjacent mission buildings as a visual marker of the path between missions. Within five years there were so many mustard plants that they were no longer useful as road guides. 

Today, the entire state is inundated with mustard plants. They also provide fuel for wildfires. Pulling these root sprout plants does little good to control them as there are always residual root sprouts left behind after weeding. Both aspen and mustard with roots for sprouting new plants are deep enough to survive forest fires, and are vigorous plants after a firestorm or grassfire. One aspen stand can produce an estimated 1 million sprouts per acre.

Q. Why do some pieces coming from a straight line rip show up with warp?

A. A wide piece of lumber, especially when cut from a crooked tree or when cut from some species, such as eucalyptus, will have stress within the piece of lumber. Often, lumber with stress will be crooked after drying. Now, when we rip this piece with a single saw blade, some of the stress will be in the ripped piece. 

The stress is not uniform throughout the lumber, causing immediate warp as it is ripped. 

Often this stress in the piece is called growth stress, because it developed during the growth of the tree. On a few occasions, the stress can arise from unusual shrinkage, especially if the pith is included in the lumber. 

Again, this drying stress is not common, but it does create issues when it is present, and the piece is ripped. 

Drying stress can be reduced or eliminated in the dry kiln process. Once dried, it is virtually impossible to avoid these longitudinal stresses from creating warp when ripping.

Incidentally, the sawblade we use in a straight-line rip saw is rather to keep sawing as straight as possible. Even so, there will be residual stress in the pieces exiting the SLR. 

A good rule of thumb is that crooked lumber will not produce straight lumber.

Q. When grading hardwood, rough, kiln-dried lumber, our grader says that if the lumber is thicker than the standard thickness, such as 15/16 inch standard for 4/4, she can ignore any defects in the over-thickness. Likewise, for lumber that is over length (12 feet 6 inches actual length has 6 inches over-length), she can ignore defects in the over-length but use clear length. Correct? If true, and because we will eventually plane the lumber to 13/16 inch, can we use this as part of the over-thickness? She says, “No.”

A. A key rule with hardwood grading is that lumber is graded “as is.” The grader cannot assume some remanufacturing will be in the future. Future planing cannot be accommodated when grading.

The over length and over thickness, basically, cannot lower the grade. But if the over-thickness and over length can be used to enhance the grade, exactly as your grader says, then the overage can be used to help.

Your grader has a score of three right and none wrong.

Q.  Not too important a question, but I took my grandkids to the lake cottage.  There is a tree with a large branch hanging over the water.  There is a rope swing hanging from the branch.  I told the grandkids that the branch is the same height above the water as when I was a kid.  They didn’t totally believe grandpa.  Am I correct?

A. Grandpa knows what he is talking about.  Technically, trees grow taller from the tips of the stem and branches and by getting fatter.  Branch height does not change.  Tell the g-kids that grandpa is an honorary member of the Wood Doctor’s group, as certified by the Wood Doctor.