Here in Minnesota one of the big box home stores sells "premium cedar mulch" in a bag. It smells nice and I don't mind the price.

We lost our elm tree to Dutch elm disease a couple of years ago and used a lot of the stump grindings as mulch for our boulevard garden. Well, now that has decomposed and we need to refresh. The cedar mulch is sort of a nice color right out of the bag and would work.

I think this has been tangentially addressed in another thread, but here is my question:

Is cedar mulch a good choice if I'm looking for an environmentally neutral mulch? What I mean is, is the production damaging to the environment, like I've heard about cypress mulch, or is it more neutral?

I'm not concerned about phytotoxicity or the cedar oils causing trouble for the soil. I just want to know how if anyone out there knows about the impact of the production of cedar mulch.

Thanks a lot