FAMILY
NAME Alnus rubra of the Family Betulaceae
OTHER NAMES Red
alder, Pacific red alder, western alder, Oregon alder
HEIGHT/WEIGHT Average height is 90 feet with diameters of
1 to 4 feet. Average weight is 31 pounds per cubic foot with a specific
gravity of 0.53.
PROPERTIES Wood
dries easily and quickly with very little degrade and slight movement in
service. Alder is moderately light. Wood works well with both machine and
hand tools. Experts recommend a reduced cutting angle to avoid problems in
planing. Cutting tools should be kept sharp to reduce blunting. Wood has
good nailing and gluing properties. Finishes well. Wood has medium
density, medium crushing strength; low stiffness; low bending strength;
low shock resistance. There is no visible boundary between heartwood and
sapwood. |
Red alders range is the
West Coast of the United States from California north to Alaska and Canada. Red
alder is a water-loving, quick-growing tree that thrives in moist conditions.
For years, red alder was appreciated more as a source of fuel than as a
commercial timber. Red alders stock has been rising steadily, however, as a
commercial timber.
Since the mid 1900s,
red alder has been gaining in popularity among woodworkers. In our last look at
this species Wood & Wood Products examined the aggressive marketing
that helped turn alder from a one-time weed tree into a sought-after species.
Like mesquite, alder was once considered a nuisance. It was bulldozed to clear
space for softwoods like Douglas fir and hemlock.
From Fuel to Furniture
It took a coordinated effort for alder to be appreciated by the
public and by those who deal in timber. Formerly, red alder was considered fit
by lumbermen only as a fuel, writes Donald Culross Peattie in his book A
Natural History of Western Trees, but the Northwest furniture companies
began less than 50 years ago to realize that they need not import eastern
hardwoods for all of their work, and today more red alder is cut than any other
Northwest hardwood, including trees with such famous reputations as oak, birch,
maple and poplar.
What turned the tide in
red alders favor is its availability and very good properties. The wood
machines well and is excellent for carving and turning. It nails, screws and
glues well and best of all it is easily sanded and takes paint and finish very
well. Alder is a wood that works well with a variety of other furniture woods,
taking a stain to complement such woods as walnut and cherry.
Red alder is available
in dimension stock, lumber and some veneer. It is sometimes used as 3-ply or
5-ply laminated wood, but in general it is used in solid wood furniture, such as
mid-priced kitchen chairs, and dozens of other uses such as kitchen cabinets,
frames, ladder rungs and the inner soles of athletic shoes.
Other uses for the wood
include turnery and carving, plywood corestock, utility plywood, chip baskets,
small laminated articles, woodenware, furniture parts, sashes, doors, panel
stock and millwork.
Reviving
Forests
Peattie says that as popular a wood as alder has become, it is
also valued as a species that moves in swiftly on burned over lands. Owing to
the abundance and lightness of its seeds and their high viability, it reproduces
well and grows swiftly, enriching the soil and providing shelter from sun and
wind for other trees. Then in 50 to 80 years, old age begins to overtake this
short-lived nurse tree and the valuable softwood timber trees outstrip and at
last replace it.
Alder trees do have an
amazing ability to spring up and thrive on land that has been ravaged by fire,
earthquakes or logging. While alders grow quickly, the species is not generally
a long-lived one. The trees mature in 25 to 40 years but will begin to
deteriorate by 60 to 80 years of age.
Red alders have a wide
height range. Most often the trees grow to between 60 and 90 feet, but some of
the alders are as short as 40 feet while other trees can grow to 100 to 120 feet
or more. Peattie says that some of the tallest red alders are found in the Puget
Sound region.
Alders Many
Species
Species closely related to our red alder include Alnus
glutinosa, which is know by the trade name common alder. This tree is native
to Europe and North Africa but is also found in Russia, western Asia and Japan.
Like our native alder, the common alder thrives near water or on moist sites.
Both common alder and red alder have many of the same uses but it too was
unappreciated as an inferior furniture wood until its stock rose and is now a
popular choice for solid wood furniture. Alder from Europe and Asia is
considered too valuable to use as a fuel but at one time it was used to make gun
powder. Alder is sometimes sliced into veneer but in general the species is used
more frequently as lumber.
In the United States
and Canada, other alders include sitka alder (Alnus sinuate), which is
mostly shrub size in the areas where it grows in the United States and Canada,
but tree-sized in the higher elevations of Oregon and in Alaska. This tree has
little commercial value as a timber tree, but it is valuable for the role it
plays in retarding erosion by streambeds. Mountain alder or thin leaf alder
(Alnus tenuifolia) is another shrub-like tree in most areas where it
grows except for the mountains of Colorado and in Northern New Mexico where it
can grow to 30 or 35 feet. This tree has no commercial value to speak of but it
has an interesting reputation as the friend of the explorer according to
Peattie. The early explorers and pioneers soon learned that the presence of
this species denoted running water.
Other domestic alders
include the California alder, Alnus rhombifolia, also called white or
western alder and Arizona alder, Alnus oblongifolia. These two species
can grow as tall as 60 feet and like the others are found near
water.