PNW tree care question - large western red cedar

[The Heretic]

All western red cedars rot out in the center.

I would not agree with that.

Some do, some don't - you don't know for sure until you cut into them. AFAIK (I did not see all of them before they were hauled off) none of my cedar trees were rotted in the center.

Also, I had one very large cedar stump near my house that was cut about 70 years ago. It was about 10' tall, 6'-7' in diameter, and it took me a day of cutting and pushing against it (with a dozer) to remove it. It was rotten on the outer foot or two, but the core was solid, even after sitting there for 70 or more years.

 

[P7M13]

Maybe I misjudged the size?

I thought the same - that they looked 30 y.o. or so.
I have 75 y.o. western reds in my yard that are ~4' diameter. Mine have English ivy around them, growing in the natural mulch from the needle droppings. Every few years I yank down the vines that are growing up the trees.

Probably a Pileated Woodpecker... like Woody. My Father called them Hammerheads.

There's a memory! I don't think I've seen a Woody Woodpecker cartoon in 50 years. Now I have his laugh stuck in my head....

 

[Oro]

They looked roughly the same when my parents bought the property in ~1997. Have not changed much in appearance/size since then, relatively speaking. The hill was logged a year or two before that to clear the property and they were left.

The bucket is 47" across, I guess the base just above where the roots flare is ~53" in diameter; a good 6 or 8" more than the bucket. So about 53" where I drew the blue line.

 

[The Heretic]

They looked roughly the same when my parents bought the property in ~1997. Have not changed much in appearance/size since then, relatively speaking. The hill was logged a year or two before that to clear the property and they were left.

Cedars were usually left alone in the past to allow them to get to an age where the resin is present in them.

Today most mills will not take any log over ~36" in diameter because they cannot handle anything larger. My cedars went to a special mill up near St. John along the Columbia. I was paid 1.5-2X as much for the cedar logs as for the fir/etc.

The bucket is 47" across, I guess the base just above where the roots flare is ~53" in diameter; a good 6 or 8" more than the bucket. So about 53" where I drew the blue line.

View attachment 2097099

Does look larger than in the other photo - probably due to perspective. I prefer the look of cedars and Sequoia over fir/spruce/hemlock/etc.