Tree improvement of Sitka spruce is a combination of silviculture and tree breeding aimed at producing higher quality products including increased growth rate and timber yield, and wood density. It is useful to know annual ring structure and density distribution when studying the quality of wood, grading it, or determining how the wood structure affects residual flow in softwoods. Since density is a factor under genetic control, the study in this article details the effects of density on longitudinal and radial permeability of Sitka spruce from base to apex. Comparison of overall means of both longitudinal and radial void volume filled (%) suggest that longitudinal permeabilities were almost the mirror image of those for the radial permeability along the tree trunk.

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