Yew Tree: I Could not cut it.

by UnderDoc
(Olympic Mountains)

About 33 years ago I found a stunning Western Yew tree in the Washington State Cascade Mountains. My job was thinning trees for the US Forest Service under contract and I was to cut all tress away from any standing fir and hemlock trees. I was working an Alder filled bottom and had a lot of cutting to do.

After rounding a small rise I came across a beautiful Yew tree that stood straight and tall with no limbs up to about eight feet. I remember this to be the biggest Yew I had seen and expect it was about 14 inches in diameter at six feet up. I know that tree took hundreds of years to grow and was one of the finest straight grain Yews I had ever seen.

I stood with my chain saw resting at the stump and looked skyward at its top. I turned and left that tree standing because I could not bring myself to cut it. I wonder how big that tree is now after another 33 years of growth. Now that I am thinking of making an English long bow from a local hardwood, I often think of this tree.