Recently, the Maxxam Corporation purchase a family-owned lumber operation that had been logging selectively and fairly sustainably on their lands for generations. In a hostile takeover, Maxxam obtained controlling interest in the company and began to liquidate its assets to pay off junk bond debt accrued in the late '80s. Those assets include the redwoods. This blond-colored softwood is native to the temperate rainforests of North America. Grain is lines or patterns in wood usually caused by seasonal variations in growth.
Tight rings mean slow growth, wide rings mean faster growth.
In old growth forests, among competing trees and varying light and other conditions, trees usually grow much more slowly than they do in an artificial replanted situation. A second growth Douglas Fir may get as large at 40 years as a 100 year old tree would be in a natural old growth forest situation. BC currently holds about half of North America's coastal temperate rainforests, an ecosystem type that once extended from northern California to Alaska. Much of the coastal temperate rainforests in California, Oregon and Washington have been logged to oblivion and those in Alaska and BC are under heavy pressure from the timber industry. Tragically, Home Depot and other home improvement centers sell large quantities of tropical and temperate rainforest wood and rainforest wood-containing products.