Dave,
California became a state in 1850 (aka the mid 1800s), logging of the redwoods had not started until after statehood and continued well past 1850, 1900, WWI, WWII.
There are many stories about how California ended up with Eucalyptus trees. In many areas they were planted as a windbreak and did that job well, however like other windbreaks trees, namely the salt cedar, the long term consequences have shown that it was not the best of choices. The wood has a twisted grain that should hold spikes securely but makes it a pain to process. The Central Pacific/Southern Pacific has been blamed for planting thousands of acres to grow their
own ties.
Some eucalyptus species were used in patent medicines and were planted to produce oils for those products. Last century it became widely known that one variety, diversicolor, had lumber properties akin to that of the Coast Redwood and might have been a better choice. 20/20 hindsight. I doubt if many of the experts in California knew how many species of Eucalyptus existed in Australia in the 1800s to choose the best species. When the koalas came to the San Francisco zoo in the 1960s there was a panic when the koalas wouldn't eat the local eucalyptus and there was a real threat of them starving to death.
In 1906, the Santa Fe Railroad Company purchased an 8000-acre tract of land known as San Dieguito Ranch, renamed it Rancho Santa Fe, and commenced the wholesale cultivation of eucalyptus for railroad ties. Ten years later Rancho Santa Fe was a failure at producing railroad ties, but is now a high rent community of million dollar ranchettes. The California eucalyptus trees do make a superior kraft board, much stronger than fir or cottonwood, but the trend in packaging has been to utilize weaker wood fibers to make kraft for corrugated boxes. The one thing our trees are really useful for has no market.
It is interesting that the species used for lumber in Australia were planted in California, maybe with the trees California should have imported some Aussie lumberman... ..
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2020 01:41AM by sp4149.
