Any Northwesterners know what this wood is? Photo taken last May, Idaho panhandle, on the trail between Priest Lake and Upper Priest Lake.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21495/Idaho_stump.jpg)
My guess would be western red cedar.
Tend to agree. The foilage in the right hand background is definitely WRC. But that stump is an old snag - and very colorful. Probably way too big (for the Panhandle) to be a yew wood, although the color is closer to that than cedar.
terrific
What diameter is a good estimate for this stump? Hard to tell from the pic, if it is small or somewhat large. Almost looks to be 15-16", but may be a lot smaller. Am thinking yew as a good possibility.
Memory only but it was pretty big I'd say 24". Should have put something in the photo for perspective but my wife was worried about bears.
By the picture I would think that that WRC is a real good guess. The fact that the bark has come off makes it a bit more challenging but the shape of the butt (scalloping) tends to have a WRC look. It appears that someone came along and did another cookie cut of an old stump or as Brad stated it is an old snag that shed its bark and that someone came along and cut the snag. The picture does not have the resolution to see the rings but would guess pretty tight from what I can see. Does appear to have a pretty good butt swell and your 24+ would make sense based on the rest of the picture background.
That would be some incredible wood to be able to cut. While we were hiking this trail through either state or fed forest land, everywhere there were downed trees. One could tell the trail by the fact that the path was chain sawn through the fallen timbers. Not like in the east where one looks for the little trail markers. These fallen trees were often more than 50 ' sometimes 80' long, often 2 or more feet in diameter straight as an arrow the full length. Just lying everywhere helter skelter and rotting away.
Just read up on a USFS publication. Considering there is a documented much larger dia. yew in Hells Canyon, ID, I am now going to say it is yew. It really is the only species out west that will retain that color. Normally a reddish brown, I'm guessing the wetness of the conditions when that pic was taken brought out the redness more. On a side note, I have personally measured a yew at 63' in ht (clino and tape), which exceeds the FS number for tallest.
Another possibility is Western Larch [tammarac] - It has similar coloring to old fire kiiled Larch snags that were killied standing during a very hot forest fire - tree/snag is almost cooked in the fire and hardened by the heat.