Western red cedar, with its high natural durability, is ideally suited for use in products that are subject to a high decay hazard in service. The service performance records for such products has been developed over a period of many years and is largely based on old growth wood. Since the raw material supply in today's market increasingly comes from fast grown second growth stands which may be genetically altered from older trees, this study was undertaken to determine if this second growth western red cedar has decay resistance properties similar to old growth wood.