Preparing Eastern Red Cedar for Deck Project

[Grey Mountain]

A neighbor has asked about preparing eastern red cedar for use in a deck project.
Not a lot of experience; however, my suggestion would be to strip the park since that's what attracts the bugs. What else should she do?

GM

[Gary G™]

Is she going to use ERC for the decking or rails, balustrades, etc?
ERC is really soft. I wouldn’t use it for the decking itself.