Letter from a Deodar Cedar

Posted

I am a Deodar Cedar and my scientific name is “Cedrus deodora.” I am about 150 years old.

My history is a little sketchy, but I may have been carried to the USA as a seedling, about 1880. This was about 20 years after fire destroyed the old Hudson's Bay Company post. I might have been carried by ship and wagon to my current location. 

I am native to the Himalayas in Asia, where I am the national tree of Pakistan. Pictures of me in the 1940s show mostly farmland around Vancouver. Someone took good care of me on this dangerous journey so long ago.

My trunk is 5 feet across, and I am over 100 feet tall. My crown stretches for 50 feet, shading the yard and the house of my owners. I can live to be 1,000 years old in my native country. Many residents of the neighborhood visit me daily, and they think I am beautiful.

In April of 2020, I received the honor of being designated a Clark County WSU Master Gardener Heritage Tree. What does that mean? Well, although it does not legally protect me from damage or loss, it does mean that I am a great specimen of my species. The Heritage Tree Committee measured me, photographed me, mapped me, and then they told my story.



Over the years, countless children have climbed on my branches, children who grew up long ago and passed from this earth. My hope is that people will continue to tell my story over the next 850 years.

Thank you, Clark County WSU Master Gardener Heritage Tree Program, for this great honor. To learn more about the Clark County WSU Master Gardener Heritage Tree Program, visit extension.wsu.edu/clark/heritage-tree/. 

See you in another 150 years….

— Cedrus deodora