Make My Casket Out of Cedar

by Steve P. Wingerson, District Conservationist
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Smith Center, Kansas

The farmer took one look at the cedar casket before deciding it was the one he wanted to be buried in. "I've been a farmer all my life, and I've fought cedars all my life. If I can take down just one more with me, that's what I want to do.”

If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed a few things lately. Things, like trees growing out in the middle of pastures and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields. Things, like news articles discussing the “tree invasion” of Kansas prairies. Things, like tree control demonstrations flaunting all sorts of tree cutting, clipping, and grinding machines.

Yes, in my line of work, sometimes it is all about the trees. How to get the trees where you want them and how to get rid of them where you do not. Hardly a week goes by at the office that we are not asked about planting trees for a windbreak or for wildlife. Likewise, questions come in each week about removing trees that are taking over pastures or that are in the way of farming new cropland.

So it goes to say, “A weed is any plant out of place.” And the saying holds true for the eastern red cedar tree.

Cedar trees have been planted in the plains states since the late 1800’s. They are still considered today to be the “tree of choice” when planting a windbreak for farmstead or livestock protection. However, the eastern red cedar is also one of several prolific “invader trees” that is swallowing up our grasslands. We now have government programs along with cost-share funding for landowners to “go out and kill the pesky things.”

But my purpose here is to neither praise nor curse the eastern red cedar and the people that sell them, plant them, or cut them down. I will leave it as before, “A weed is any plant out of place.”

Cedar trees are useful trees. Numerous desirable products can be made from them. Let me name “just a few” – logs; fence posts; fragrant oils; firewood; dimensional lumber; closet lining/paneling; animal bedding; mulch; clothes hangers/hooks; cedar moth balls; bird feeders/houses; mailboxes and mailbox posts; novelties; pencils; carvings; wood chips; furniture, such as chests, beds, drawers, tables, chairs, shelves, wardrobes; and many outdoor items including benches, picnic tables, arbors, trellises, gazebos, decks, siding, and fence boards.

And my personal favorite……caskets. “Mmmm, what a way to go. Attractive, sturdy, long-lasting, competitively-priced…..and keeps you smelling nice too!” Go ahead, check the Internet. There are numerous casket companies all ready and willing to put you in the finest cedar casket you ever imagined. By the way, it takes about 140 board feet of lumber to produce a typical cedar casket.

My point is this: I believe we have an opportunity right here under our noses…..and it smells like cedar. The eastern red cedar has economic value. Did you know that when a cedar tree is converted into products it is almost completely utilized? Virtually nothing is wasted with red cedar, every by-product has a market. Large logs are sliced into thin veneer for the furniture and laminated panels industry. Smaller logs are re-sawn and made into tongue and groove planks for closet lining. The smaller diameter trees and large log slabs are typically shaved into pet bedding or hogged into mulch.

Waste from the pressboard process is used as fuel for drying the flakes. The small slabs from the sawmill and other log waste are transformed into mulch for landscaping. Sawdust and planer shavings from the sawmill are processed for extracting cedar wood oil for the fragrance industry. Residue, after extraction, is used as boiler fuel for generating the steam for the oil process and as space heating in the winter.

“Wow!” you say, “How cool! Let’s make some stuff out of cedar. When do we start?” And therein lies the problem. Someone has to be the first; someone has to take the lead. Perhaps you have cedar trees in your pasture that you would like to sell. Maybe harvesting the standing cedar trees and selling the logs is more up your alley. Do not forget about the first by-products, the mulching of the smaller limbs, and the possible firewood. Have you always wanted to operate a small sawmill and make rough-cut lumber? Or your niche might be more consumer oriented, the actual crafting of birdhouses, rustic furniture, or novelties. Regardless of your specialty or interest, you and the eastern red cedar tree could possibly become good friends.

I do know this much. When my time comes, it would give me great pleasure to know that someone made the effort to clear their Kansas prairie of invading cedar trees. And somehow, along the line of making those trees into cedar products, that they provided a conservationist (hopefully an old one) with a sturdy, long-lasting, competitively-priced, sweet-smelling resting place.

For more information about eastern red cedar trees, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center.

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

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Last Modified: 12/18/2007