Among the Cedars
19/06/14 07:21
In the books of Chronicles and Kings, the temple built by Solomon is described in various ways, including the process of obtaining building materials and craftsmen to build the temple, the architectural description of the shape and size of the building, and many of its features. No expense was spared in constructing the building, including the Hekhal, or Holy Place. Probably the most prominent feature of that place was the extensive use of gold. If you read an English translation of the bible, the word gold is used so often that it gives a deep sense of the extravagance of the construction.
But it is another building material that catches my attention when I read the descriptions of the temple. I guess I have more experience with wood construction, but in a building that was largely a masonry project, the mention of wood at all is a bit of a surprise. In the Hekhal, before the gold is installed, there is extensive use of cedar.
Cedar is mentioned in several places in the Bible. The cedars of Lebanon are renounced for their size and strength in construction of many different things. Outside of the bible, sources speak of the cedars being used for building ships, palaces and other notable buildings. Cedrus libani is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Mediterranean region. The trees grow up to 130 feet in height and can have trunks as large as 8 feet in diameter. These massive trees are magnificent to see growing in their natural state. Variations of the trees are found throughout the mountainous regions of the Mideast. Turkey also has giant cedar groves.
Cedar trees grow in various locations in the United States and Canada. Western red cedar is the variety with which I am most familiar. In most places of the pacific northwest where western red cedar trees are found, the groves also feature two other forest giants, Douglas fir and western hemlock.
Cedar is a gorgeous wood. It smells lovely when it is growing and after the trees have been harvested, the boards retain a distinctive odor which is often used to line closets or in other ways to keep moths out of clothing and other precious items.
It is a great wood for building boats. When cut into thin planks, cedar can be molded into complex shapes, including the complex curves that make a boat glide through the water. I have made canoes and kayaks out of cedar and love working with the wood.
Most of my life I have lived in dryer climates than the places that grow the giant cedars. In our country we grow small, twisted junipers. The trees are related to the giant cedars, but the junipers don’t gain the great height and they twist and turn as they grow so that it is difficult to harvest boards from the trees and the boards that we can make are filled with knots and strange grain patterns. Juniper is good for fence posts because it is slow to rot and will last a long time, but it is probably the wrong wood for extensive boat building.
Like other forest products, part of the value of the great trees, however, is not just the uses to which we can put the wood when the tree is cut down. The value of the mixed wood temperate rain forests in the Pacific northwest gives us all kinds of reasons to be careful in our management of this resource and keep the forests healthy for future generations. Despite our desire for the precious wood, we need to limit our use so that the forests can remain healthy.
During our visits to the northwest, we have appreciated the opportunities to walk in the forests of giants and appreciate the joy of simply being among the magnificent trees. We have seen fallen trees that are nurseries for new trees, with dozens, even hundreds of small new trees growing from the fallen trunk of a tree that provides nourishment for the new trees as it slowly decomposes in the damp environment.
One of the little-noted properties of cedar wood are its acoustical properties. The wood is an excellent absorber of sound. Unlike some surfaces that reflect sound and provide for reverberation, the relatively soft wood of cedar trees absorbs the sound. I once read an article that claimed that the most acoustically isolated location in the United States is the middle of the rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula here in Washington. In that place, there is virtually no human produced noise that can be recorded unless hikers or others come into the area. The sounds of aircraft flying overhead, highways carrying lots of cars and trucks and ocean-going ships are all absorbed by the forest and cannot be heard or measured by sensitive sound recording instruments.
Those qualities are especially appreciated in the densely populated urban corridor around Seattle. There are a lot of people in a small area and most of them drive cars to get to and from their jobs. Seattle is home to Boeing, builder of some of the largest commercial jets in the world. Although the production of the jumbos is north of Seattle in Everett, Boeing field is still close to downtown Seattle and sees considerable air traffic. Overhead the planes from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport fill the skies with sound.
Groves of trees provide a significant sound barrier to enable people to live and work and recreate in a quieter atmosphere. When we first visited Olympia, we were surprised and delighted to find a hospital in the middle of a large grove of Cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir trees. Even with the helicopters that bring patients to the hospital’s trauma center, the sounds are relatively quiet on the hospital grounds. It makes for a good place for healing and recovery.
I will continue to make boats out of cedar. The boat production of my lifetime will be far less than a single tree. Still, it is important for me to remember that I contribute to the consumption of this valuable resource. As we make decisions about the future of the forest and the role of humans in its management, I hope that we can learn ways to sustain these magnificent forests for future generations.
But it is another building material that catches my attention when I read the descriptions of the temple. I guess I have more experience with wood construction, but in a building that was largely a masonry project, the mention of wood at all is a bit of a surprise. In the Hekhal, before the gold is installed, there is extensive use of cedar.
Cedar is mentioned in several places in the Bible. The cedars of Lebanon are renounced for their size and strength in construction of many different things. Outside of the bible, sources speak of the cedars being used for building ships, palaces and other notable buildings. Cedrus libani is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Mediterranean region. The trees grow up to 130 feet in height and can have trunks as large as 8 feet in diameter. These massive trees are magnificent to see growing in their natural state. Variations of the trees are found throughout the mountainous regions of the Mideast. Turkey also has giant cedar groves.
Cedar trees grow in various locations in the United States and Canada. Western red cedar is the variety with which I am most familiar. In most places of the pacific northwest where western red cedar trees are found, the groves also feature two other forest giants, Douglas fir and western hemlock.
Cedar is a gorgeous wood. It smells lovely when it is growing and after the trees have been harvested, the boards retain a distinctive odor which is often used to line closets or in other ways to keep moths out of clothing and other precious items.
It is a great wood for building boats. When cut into thin planks, cedar can be molded into complex shapes, including the complex curves that make a boat glide through the water. I have made canoes and kayaks out of cedar and love working with the wood.
Most of my life I have lived in dryer climates than the places that grow the giant cedars. In our country we grow small, twisted junipers. The trees are related to the giant cedars, but the junipers don’t gain the great height and they twist and turn as they grow so that it is difficult to harvest boards from the trees and the boards that we can make are filled with knots and strange grain patterns. Juniper is good for fence posts because it is slow to rot and will last a long time, but it is probably the wrong wood for extensive boat building.
Like other forest products, part of the value of the great trees, however, is not just the uses to which we can put the wood when the tree is cut down. The value of the mixed wood temperate rain forests in the Pacific northwest gives us all kinds of reasons to be careful in our management of this resource and keep the forests healthy for future generations. Despite our desire for the precious wood, we need to limit our use so that the forests can remain healthy.
During our visits to the northwest, we have appreciated the opportunities to walk in the forests of giants and appreciate the joy of simply being among the magnificent trees. We have seen fallen trees that are nurseries for new trees, with dozens, even hundreds of small new trees growing from the fallen trunk of a tree that provides nourishment for the new trees as it slowly decomposes in the damp environment.
One of the little-noted properties of cedar wood are its acoustical properties. The wood is an excellent absorber of sound. Unlike some surfaces that reflect sound and provide for reverberation, the relatively soft wood of cedar trees absorbs the sound. I once read an article that claimed that the most acoustically isolated location in the United States is the middle of the rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula here in Washington. In that place, there is virtually no human produced noise that can be recorded unless hikers or others come into the area. The sounds of aircraft flying overhead, highways carrying lots of cars and trucks and ocean-going ships are all absorbed by the forest and cannot be heard or measured by sensitive sound recording instruments.
Those qualities are especially appreciated in the densely populated urban corridor around Seattle. There are a lot of people in a small area and most of them drive cars to get to and from their jobs. Seattle is home to Boeing, builder of some of the largest commercial jets in the world. Although the production of the jumbos is north of Seattle in Everett, Boeing field is still close to downtown Seattle and sees considerable air traffic. Overhead the planes from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport fill the skies with sound.
Groves of trees provide a significant sound barrier to enable people to live and work and recreate in a quieter atmosphere. When we first visited Olympia, we were surprised and delighted to find a hospital in the middle of a large grove of Cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir trees. Even with the helicopters that bring patients to the hospital’s trauma center, the sounds are relatively quiet on the hospital grounds. It makes for a good place for healing and recovery.
I will continue to make boats out of cedar. The boat production of my lifetime will be far less than a single tree. Still, it is important for me to remember that I contribute to the consumption of this valuable resource. As we make decisions about the future of the forest and the role of humans in its management, I hope that we can learn ways to sustain these magnificent forests for future generations.