This past weekend I took a walk at the Eel River Preserve in Plymouth. This site had historically been used as a cranberry bog, but was restored in 2010. The restoration project included restoring 1.7 miles of sinuous stream channel, reconstruction of the floodplain, removal of dikes and water control structures, and planting 17,000 Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) trees. Although these trees are only 10 years old, and still have a long way to go, it was encouraging to see dense stands of them thriving within the restored floodplain of the upper portion of the site. 

Atlantic white cedars are evergreen trees, which typically grow to heights of 30 to 50 feet tall, but can reach upwards of 80 feet in height. Foliage consists of small scale-like leaves arranged in fan-shaped sprays. They appear similar to northern white cedar (Arbor vitae), but the Atlantic white cedar’s scale-like leaves are narrower and not as flattened as those of Arbor vitae. Although not as prominent in the 10-year old saplings at the Eel River Preserve, the bark of larger trees is reddish brown, with long narrow vertical fibrous, sometimes, scaly ridges. The female cones are small, 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter, and dark red-brown. Small, inconspicuous yellow or reddish staminate flowers are borne singly at the tips of short branchlets.

Commonly found in swamps, bogs and wet woodlands, under suitable conditions, Atlantic white cedar can form pure dense stands. Their range extends along a narrow belt of the Atlantic coastal plain, from southern Maine to Florida, and west along the gulf coast to Mississippi. 

Atlantic white cedar is highly sought after for its wood because of its resistance to decay. The wood is soft, durable, light, and aromatic. In fact, the wood is so valuable for shipbuilding, shingles and other construction work, that large prehistoric Atlantic white cedar logs have been mined from New Jersey bogs.