When people think of maples, quite often they think of the trees in Eastern forests. What many don't realize is that the United States is home to some 20 different species of the maple. Among the many species of maple are black, broad leaved, fig leaf, hard, Oregon, rock, river, rough, scarlet, silver, soft and sugar.

Classified as a soft maple, Big Leaf maple, also known as Oregon maple, is noteworthy because it is the most commercially important of the maples found in the Western United States. Each one of the tree's leaves is usually a foot long, with three to five lobes and often wider than long.

"The West is in general poor in hardwoods yielding high-quality lumber, but big leaf maple is an exception, producing several million board feet a year for use in furniture, interior finish, flooring, and boat building. The best timber is not cut from trees in deep, coniferous woods, for these are apt to be spindling in competition with the mighty conifers, but from specimens grown in more open maple groves." - Donald Culross Peattie

Western maples occasionally yield curly and bird's-eye figures. According to Peattie, "In the pioneering days in the Northwest, curly maple gun stocks were highly prized, both by the Hudson Bay Company men and the Indians." Second growth saplings were a favorite for single-trees in the days of wagon building. Early users of the Western maples, the Native Americans of Oregon and California, made canoe paddles from the big leaf maples. Sap was used to make sugar.

Typically, big leaf maple is creamy white in color with a straight grain. The wood in general is softer than hard maples; rock maples, for example, average 45 pounds per cubic foot in weight. Big leaf maple is also lower in strength than the hard maples. However, it shares many of the same uses as hard maple, including: flooring, furniture, interior joinery, piano actions, dairy and laundry equipment, turnery and architectural uses such as paneling. The figured logs are cut into decorative veneers. Big leaf maple can also be used to make plywood.

Specialized uses include shoe lasts, musical instruments and a variety of sporting goods such as canoe paddles. Big leaf maple is less lustrous than hard maples, however, the wood can be worked easily with both hand and power tools.