Some of the third growth Douglas Fir forests planted in our area had better than expected survival rate of the seedlings. The resulting dense stand of young conifers compete for a space in the top of the canopy where the the direct sunlight promotes rapid growth of the strongest trees. The losers of this race die a slow death and then remain standing while the wood drys and seasons. Eventually nature knocks these trees to the forest floor where the rot and decay process accelerates radically, but for the first couple of years the seasoning process sometimes produces very interesting results.
Since these trees died from losing the race for sunlight, the last few years of their life resulted in very slow to extremely slow growth. As shown in the photo, this 22 year old, 5" diameter Doug Fir tree produced only 1/16" of radius growth in its last three years of life, and the late wood to early wood ratio is greater than one (>1). Consequently this wood is very dense and stable, and when left dead standing in the forest, shaded from direct sunlight, with the bark intact; conditions can be optimized for those interesting results.
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