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Champion Information:
Height (Ft): 78
Circumference (In): 232
Average Crown Spread (Ft): 39
Total Points: 320
Nominator Name: Mark Corbet
Location: Lake County, Inside of Lost Forest Research and Natural Area, northeast of Christmas Valley.
Species Information:
Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) trees are a common sight in the high desert of eastern Oregon, southwestern Idaho, and northeastern California. Juniper trees have been described as looking like "polka-dots on the hillsides". Western juniper populations have expanded and contracted over the last 7,000 years. Within the last 150 years or so, the population and acreage covered by western juniper has increased three- to ten-fold. This expansion has many ranchers and resource professionals concerned about juniper's impacts on rangeland conditions. Juniper are known to out-compete surrounding vegetation for already scarce water resources. An area with relatively high juniper densities often has little to no understory vegetation. Juniper have historically been removed in order to improve rangeland conditions. Unfortunately, little to no use has existed for the wood aside from fence posts or firewood. In an effort to better utilize this resource, a cooperative effort involving private companies and government agencies began around 1991. |
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Western juniper heartwood is highly durable (similar to redwood and cedars) and has aromatic properties like its close relative eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana). The color of the wood varies from milky white to deep reddish-brown and has large, swirling grain patterns and bands of heartwood mixed with sapwood, similar to eastern redcedar. Tests have shown juniper wood to machine, glue, and finish well. Once dried, juniper wood shrinks and swells less than many other Pacific Northwest species such as Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and western redcedar. Juniper has some unique bending properties. After being soaked in hot water, thin (1/32"-1/16") samples have been tied into intricate knots without splitting.
Juniper wood is slightly more dense than ponderosa pine. The wood is also quite hard for a softwood: about 35% harder than ponderosa pine, but only about ½ as hard as red oak. Juniper is about 70% as stiff as ponderosa pine, and 85% as stiff as incense-cedar, meaning the wood deforms relatively easily under loads.
