Alder has a great story behind it that makes it one of the best species to promote around a Green marketing message.  The following Alder facts are important – Fast growing trees like Alder store the most carbon during their first decades, often a tree’s most productive period.  On good sites, height growth in Alder may exceed 6 ft/year for the first five years, and trees may attain heights of 60 to 80 ft in 20 years.  Large leaves and wide crowns enable maximum photosynthesis which reduces the CO2 in the atmosphere.   

Native species will thrive in your soil and best support local wildlife.  Red Alder also provides an essential deciduous component in the predominantly coniferous forests of the Northwest. Typically, shrub and herb vegetation under Alder is quite different from that of conifer-dominated areas. Various animals seem to prefer or depend on Alder for food or habitat.  

Red Alder is a pioneer species that proliferates in openings created by forest disturbance; it commonly invades newly bared soils after landslides, logging, or fire. This helps to minimize natural sedimentation from runoff and establish soil stability where other species can root in and grow.  Red Alder can also maintain or improve soils via rapid input of organic matter and nitrogen. 

Historical inventories indicate that the abundance of red Alder has increased about 20-fold since the 1920s despite growing from being a species that was pushed aside, poisoned, and otherwise ignored until the 1970s.  Now that it is a preferred, viable, commercially manufactured species, it provides quality lumber worldwide while expanding the total volume available for harvest.   

The current inventory of about 7.4 billion cubic feet of Red Alder comprises 60 percent of the total hardwood volume in the Pacific Northwest. The most significant volume occurs in the Puget Sound and Northwest Oregon subregions, central to the procurement area for Cascade. A significant portion of the Red Alder resource is unavailable for harvest; forest practices rules constrain timber management in riparian areas where Red Alder is most abundant.  Cascade works closely with federal, state, and area representatives to protect these riparian areas when harvesting Alder for our sawmills. 

Alder is without question one of the most environmentally friendly hardwood species. Combined with its excellent working properties, the choice to use Cascade Alder in all your projects and purchases should be easy. You can also highlight Alder’s positive environmental scorecard when recommending a species for cabinet, millwork, or furniture manufacturing.