pacific yew wood

minesmoria · January 17, 2005, 05:28:52 PM

I have 4 of these trees which i took down for firewood in my yard.

It has a very strong smell days after you cut it, i cut it into 18" pieces it was very heavy and hard to chop.

It burns great with big coals great heat.

what do they use these tree for if any thing.

Ianab · January 17, 2005, 05:55:06 PM

Curing cancer .. hopefully ???

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/taxus/brevifolia.htm

Timber seems durable and usefull, but the tree is relatively small and slow growing, so doesn't seem to be harvevested commercially to any great extent.

"All parts of the plant, except the flesh of the fruit, are highly poisonous" So dont try eating it. :

Ian

SwampDonkey · January 18, 2005, 12:43:07 PM

Hi there minesmoria:

I once lived in Prince Rupert myself for 3 years.

These trees are usually found in the Coastal NW region and in your area, they're not so common. They are merchantable timber but I think they are sought mainly for the treatment of cancer as IanAb says. I know they grow them in nurseries in the US and Canada for the extraction of Taxonals in cancer research. If you had known someone with a portable mill in the area, or possibly in Terrace (like member Percy), you may have been able to sell the logs or even have them milled. Yellow cypress is also aromatic an much more highly saught for timber, but it grows mainly in the hills above 400 meters ASL.

best of luck

Jeff · January 21, 2005, 01:03:11 AM

My understanding is that the compounds in the yew have been synthesized and the yew is no longer needed for extraction of paclitaxel (taxol )

SwampDonkey · January 21, 2005, 03:54:32 AM

The Canada Yew is still actively harvested in New Brunswick, in fact there is debate over the fact that it might be threatened from improper harvesting techniques. Some of it is outright theft from woodlot owners that don't even know its being taken. The semi-synthetic drug taxol is made from the extractions of the yew plant's bark. The semi-synthetic drug docetaxel, which is similar, comes from the yew's leaves. Scientists are only altering the extractives, not synthesizing them. Thus, you still need the plant. ;)

Jeff · January 21, 2005, 08:47:37 AM

Intense research on finding alternatives to taxol extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew is ongoing. Taxol has been chemically synthesized and semi-synthetic versions have been developed using needles and twigs from other yew species grown in agricultural settings. This is reducing the pressure on natural stands of Pacific yew but bark is still being used for taxol production.

Source:
http://www.pfc.forestry.ca/ecology/yew/taxol_e.html

SwampDonkey · January 21, 2005, 09:41:03 AM

"Paclitaxel, also called Taxol®, is a well-established cancer drug, sold by Bristol Meyers Squibb (BMS) for clinical use since 1992. It has been called the greatest selling anti-cancer drug in the world (Goodman and Walsh 2001). Taxol and the closely related taxane Taxotere® (docetaxel, produced by Aventis) had sales of $2.3 billion USD in 2001 (Anonymous 2002). In fact, paclitaxel has been shown to have beneficial effects against more than 20 forms of cancers and other diseases, and the list is growing. Ironically, plants that produce paclitaxel are not limited to remote jungles in the developing world, but are literally found in the backyards and woodlots in some of the most densely populated regions of North America.
Harvesting of yew species to extract taxanes (of which paclitaxel is but one) from bark, needles, and small twigs began about 12 years ago. The initial source of paclitaxel was the bark of the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia). However, as with many naturally derived products, harvesting in the wild quickly exceeded sustainable levels. During this relatively short time, uncontrolled and unregulated harvesting resulted in serious overharvesting of wild populations of most yew species worldwide, including the Pacific yew in western North America and native yew species throughout Europe and Asia. Ground hemlock (Taxus canadensis) harvesting has recently begun, and demand for biomass is escalating at an alarming rate. Ground hemlock is likely the world's last untapped source of yew biomass, and harvesters, drug manufacturers, and governments in eastern Canada need to take immediate steps to ensure this resource does not become depleted.

Plants with higher taxane concentrations are needed if commercial cultivation is to be an economically desirable alternative."

Source:
Interests in Eastern Yew sustainable harvesting

Info on the Eastern Yew , studied by Dr Ron Smith of Forestry Canada and Mr Bill Glen of PEI Dept of Agr and Forestry

On February 22 of this year at the Funday Model Forest Project Forum, Drs Ron Smith and Stewart Cameron will be discussing the interest in ground hemlock (eastern yew) in the atlantic region. I will be attending those meetings as a point of interest. I don't have enough of it on my woodlot to even be bothered to harvest it, but I think its an important bit of research which want to learn more about.

Response of Canada (eastern) Yew to different harvesting systems

"A promising alternative is docetaxel (Taxotereâ,,¢), a compound that resembles paclitaxel in chemical structure. Docetaxel, like the semi-synthetic paclitaxel, is produced by altering a compound extracted from the needles of the yew tree. The drug has shown promise in early clinical trials."

Source
http://www.umm.edu/breast/taxol.htm

Jeff · January 21, 2005, 10:04:22 AM

What are you showing me there? Yes, the bark is still being harvested, I didn't imply any differently, but you stated that the drug had not been synthesized and from what I see it has. You dont "need" the plant.

Total Synthesis of Taxol

Taxol represents an enormous challenge to the ingenuity and creativity of the synthetic organic chemist.

Three total syntheses have been carried out to date. The Holton group and Nicolaou group published their approaches in 1994, and very recently, Danishefsky and co-workers reported their route to taxol. Many other groups worldwide are continuing to carry out research in this area, in order to develop newer and shorter routes to this natural product, but also with a view to creating modified structures which may be more biol ogically active. Such groups include the Magnus researchers at Austin, Texas, and the Wender group at Stanford who have published their results recently, amongst others.

source:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Chemistry/MOTM/taxol/taxol.htm

SwampDonkey · January 21, 2005, 10:24:16 AM

For some reason I seem to read it as that the plant is still needed to synthesize the taxane derivatives. I guess the fact they continue harvesting wild plants for the extractives throws me off a bit. And your right of course, it doesn't mean thay can't produce it independantly. I also found it interesting that they noted the cultivated yew does not seem to have as high a concentration as wild plants. I guess the sites that I had looked up didn't indicate it was independently synthesized. They mentioned it was being semi-synthesized, thus the confusion.

Jeff:
At this point I'm still not sure either way, I guess I'll have to ask them in February. Nothing to loose any sleep over. ;)

SwampDonkey · January 21, 2005, 10:28:44 AM

Jeff:

Your last article from that European site helped alot. Thanks for finding it.

Jeff · January 21, 2005, 10:49:22 AM

I always hesitate to post in here because as you all know, I am not a forester, and probably wrong much more then I am right. I did watch a special on this, I think it was on NOVA, or discover the world of science, ot something like that a year or so ago that discussed this, so I was sure of my statement.

beenthere · January 21, 2005, 11:38:48 AM

Never hesitate too long, Jeff. ;D We may miss some good information and wise experience. Maybe just a good laugh too. ;D
I was also of the understanding that the plants were no longer being harvested, at least the big operations have ceased in the West. I was waiting for Tillaway from Tillamook to straighten us out here too. He is in the thick of the Pacific Yew harvesting area, as of a good 10 years ago anyway.

Its a good thing to know that it can be synthisized. I also had heard that the yews were being grown in nurseries, and then the synthetic versions brought that to slow motion as well as the harvesting. There were some interesting 'small diameter' harvesting techniques being developed and used to get the small yew trees out of the forests. One was a long rope that wound it's way through the woods, powered on a roadside by a winch or windlass arrangement. The cut yew stems were then tied to the rope with a piece of twine, that moved the material out to the landing. The rope was continuosly moving all the time. A sort of hi-line logging operation.

SwampDonkey · January 21, 2005, 11:42:33 AM

I'm almost never 100 % sure of things I post because there is always a chance someone has found some new research I didn't. I've been straightened out on more than one occassion by Ron W and Ron S and others on certain topics. I do my best to be concise but it doesn't always work that way. I still have a lot to learn and will never quit learning. Thanks in part to my peers, others will more experience than myself in a particular subject, and places like this forum. Never be afraid to express what you are sure to be right and factual.

BTW, I like those Nova shows on PBS as well.

Tillaway · January 21, 2005, 06:55:02 PM

These guys have more info on yew than I have.

Very little grows right around me, in fact there are only a few known to be on the district. Other parts of the state have much more. The yew "rush" lasted only about a year. They were pretty quick to discover alternatives.

The Miller Monocable Yarding System was used to get the yew out of the woods. It is basically converted hydraulic crab block. There is still one that is used near Lake Tahoe, CA for fuels reduction work around the homes.

Frank_Pender · January 22, 2005, 07:56:54 PM

As the logs got to be a bit more scarce they discovered that there was more taxol (sp) in the needles than in the bark. Some folks are experimenting with just the havestingof the needles, somewhat like cutting hedges of yew and cutting with a hedge trimmer.

woodbeard · January 30, 2005, 08:01:08 AM

The wood is also used for bows ( archery ).

Eric_Jensen · January 30, 2005, 12:54:22 PM

During the summer of '92 I was a grunt on a research team studying Pacific Yews. Bristol Meyers had to pay for research in exchange for the rights to harvest. We traveled around OR taking measurements or Yew trees and there environment. We took diameters, height, age, slope, canopy density, soil survey, surrounding species, etc. They are tough trees. Some of the trees we took measurments on had 100 rings per inch. Some had been knocked over by oldgrowth windfall. They just kept on growing while the log rotted on top of them.

SwampDonkey · January 30, 2005, 01:01:32 PM

That reminds me of the resilience of yellow cypress. I seen them half buried in mud, bark stripped away from the truck still supporting branches attached to the bark and fire scarred trees supporting life with a strip of bark left on the tree. Seen some that had been laying in water and mud, chop into them and they were as sound as the day they fell over.

Tom · January 30, 2005, 02:14:53 PM

Vegetation, especially trees, has a lot more survival capacity than we animals. I enjoy stories about old bushes and plants.

One I read one time has to do with the identification of the first home built on a piece of property. The author said to look for an apple tree. Standing next to it and looking uphill one will find a succession of old apple stumps, limbs, and perhaps bearing trees. Walking uphill to the last instance of the line of apple trees one will happen on the reamains of the old building that once inhabited the spot.

Pioneers would build a house and plant an apple tree next to it. over the years, the apple tree would age, become diseased, and fall. Where it fell it would take root, send up shoots grow a new tree and the procedure would take place all over again. When the tree wojld fall, it would fall down-hill leaving a string of its ancestors behind. So, to find the house, just follow the apple trees.

SwampDonkey · January 30, 2005, 02:43:22 PM

Tom,

That's very true about apple trees. On my woodlot there is an old apple tree that was planted on the original homestead. It's what we would call a winter apple. When the late fall frost hits the fruit it's best to pick the fruit then. But, anyway, I remember the old house and when I was 7 or 8 years old father would keep the horse in the old run down house when he worked the woods. By then the pasture had grown up into forest and that dang tree still thrived. The house is long gone and that was 30 years ago and I find myself going to that old tree to get apples in late october. Another planting along side those old houses was rhubarb. Everyone planted rhubard as they did apple trees. I found one old cellar and beside it was a huge rhubarb plant growing under the shade of alder and trees over growing the old rock walled cellar. The leaf blades where a good 3 feet long and over 2 feet wide. A co-worker dug up part of the root as he was into wine making and he said rhubarb made the best wine he ever made. You wouldn't think something so sour would make a good wine. Another common planting is Canada lilly, which I found on a good many homesteads and community schools abandoned. I've even got some growing on the north side of the house, they are very resilient.

Frank_Pender · January 30, 2005, 11:28:34 PM

Thanks for showing yourself around here Eric. It is about time. Eric is the proud owner of two of Log Rite Peaveys that he purchased from me. He is also nice enough to have given me eight delisious logs last week Sick a more. I wiegh the load at a feed store when I got to town and I grossed 24,000 for my F450. The truck weighs 8500.

The load dumped without a bit of trouble. ;D