Seven species of hardwood, Beech (Fagus grandifolia), Basswood (Tilia americana), Maple (Acer rubrum), Oak (Quercus rubra), Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides), White birch (Betula papyrifera) and Yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) were vacuum or pressure impregnated with CCA, at four retention levels. The CCA was allowed to fix in the wood at 35°C. Red pine (Pinus resinosa) was also included in the experiment as a control. Each of the wood species was exposed to the soft rot fungus, Chaetomium globosum. There is a marked difference in the CCA fixation time between the wood species. Oak fixed the first followed by beech and maple. Red pine and white birch took intermediate times to fix and the last set of species to fix were the yellow poplar, aspen and basswood. The leaching results of the same revealed that faster fixation resulted in increased leaching losses, especially of arsenic. Relative leaching was higher at lower retention. There was not a direct correlation between mass loss and CCA fixation and leaching properties suggesting that factors other than CCA persistence and initial distribution control soft rot susceptibility of these species.

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