Many authors have suggested natural durability may be lower in second-growth western redcedar than in old-growth. One potential means of offsetting a decline in durability is use of physical barriers to separate the wood from soil. In the present work we compared the durability of old-growth and second-growth western red cedar posts, with and without barrier wraps, in a field test. After ten years, two non-wrapped old-growth posts and one non-wrapped second-growth post failed a push test; no wrapped posts failed. Non-wrapped posts had mean decay ratings of 7 for both old-growth and second-growth, while wrapped posts had mean decay ratings of 8 and 9 for old-growth and second-growth, respectively. This suggested that wrapping may extend service life. There were minimal differences between old-growth and second-growth decay ratings. This result can be attributed to the minimal differences between measured extractives.

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