It can be a major component of stands on relatively dry, rocky ridges, but is generally rare in droughty soils.

Its roots are fine and shallow on sites with poorly drained soils, and rooting depth is greater on relatively well-drained soils. However, information on rooting of mature trees on well-drained soils is limited, making it difficult to predict where their roots occur.

The thin bark provides little protection from heat injury to the cambium.

On open-canopy sites and sites with severe climates and short growing seasons, such as low-elevation bogs and high-elevation subalpine and treeline sites, it may layer from retained lower branches that make contact with the soil.

Dispersed seeds overwinter in the snowbank, and ungerminated, unpredated seeds may persist in the soil and germinate the following year.

Seed dispersal begins in the fall and continues to the following spring, with no fire-stimulated or serotinous cone opening described.

One study found that mean dispersal distance was 4.65 m from population boundaries, and seedlings were rarely found farther than 11 m. While dispersal distances are unknown, seeds probably do not disperse farther than the 120 m reported for related species.

Germination is highest on bare mineral soil, though interference from associated species limits establishment on bare microsites. Seedlings may establish under the forest canopy and remain in the understory for decades. On high-elevation sites, establishment is most frequent on raised mounds and rotten downed wood, where snow melts earliest and seedling density and survival are greater.

However, it is less shade tolerant in the northern parts of its range than the southern parts, and less tolerant than many of its associated species.

However, mature yellow-cedars with fire scars have been observed on a few sites, suggesting some resistance to fire.

Its seeds are apparently dormant when ripe, and warm stratification followed by a long period of cold stratification can improve germination rates. Heat-, smoke-, or char-cued germination is not described, and given its lack of fire adaptations, germination is unlikely to be stimulated by fire.

Given the lack of fire adaptations and infrequent fire in plant communities where yellow-cedar occurs, it is unlikely that cone production is stimulated by fire.

The source does not indicate that its fire sensitivity differs among seasons.

Little information is available about yellow-cedar flammability, but compared to other species, yellow-cedar has a low to moderate fire resistance score in a ranking of traits, including three relating to litter flammability (flame length, percentage consumed, and flame duration).

However, one study reported that yellow-cedar established in burns in coastal subalpine forests, and another reported that yellow-cedar regeneration was abundant 11 years after a fire in the Aldrich Mountains.

Nonetheless, late-successional stands may be more frequent and cover larger areas than before the era of fire exclusion, unless they have been logged.

Prescribed fire has been used for silvicultural site preparation, where it improved survival and growth of planted yellow-cedars by reducing interference from associated shrubs.

Low-severity fire applies only to the relict Aldrich Mountains stand, where low-severity fires burned the surrounding forest frequently, but may not have always extended into the moist, streamside microsites where yellow-cedar occurs.

The LANDFIRE Biophysical Settings for these systems indicate fire regime group 5.