THE WORLD'S GREATEST WOODLOT 



By George S. Long. 



THERE are native to the Pacific 

 slope states about one hun- 

 dred species of true forest 

 trees, not counting low shrub 

 forms, and of these nearly forty spe- 

 cies, or over a third, have established 

 commercial value. From the ordinary 

 lumbering standpoint, about fifteen spe- 

 cies are of high importance because of 

 both quantity and quality and perhaps 

 five more are cut when found in mix- 

 ture with them. The other kinds classed 

 above as commercial are rarer, or used 

 only for special purposes, and do not 

 enter into ordinary lumber stocks. 



While a few important species are 

 confined to particular localities, like the 

 redwood of the California coast coun- 

 ties and the Port Orford cedar of 

 southwestern Oregon, others occur 

 wherever climatic conditions suit their 

 peculiar requirements and a third still 

 more adaptable class, like Douglas fir 

 and western yellow pine, range through- 

 out the entire West except upon deserts 

 and mountain tops, although finding 

 certain conditions more favorable 

 to their highest development. For 

 these reasons, and particularly because 

 there are few extensive areas maintain- 

 ing uniform conditions particularly 

 suited to one, pure stands of any one 

 species are rare. The forests of the 

 west present a succession of varying 

 mixture-types, perhaps dominated in 

 certain regions by one or more species 

 but often shading into another type al- 

 most imperceptibly with changing alti- 

 tude or climate. 



The western slope of the Rockies is 

 typically a western yellow pine and 

 Engelman spruce forest, the spruce suc- 

 ceeding the pine at higher, moister alti- 

 tudes. The same red or Douglas fir 

 that grows to immense size on the coast 

 is scattered through it, but of small size 

 or value. Alpine members of the white 

 pine family occur but are not commer- 

 cial. At the foot of the mountains, 



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making a transition into sage brush, are 

 areas of juniper trees too small to saw 

 but valuable for fuel and posts. Under 

 certain mountain conditions, especially 

 where fire has discouraged the yellow 

 pine, lodgepole pine is abundant, and 

 although little used for lumber, affords 

 ties and mining timbers. 



Just as in the southern part of the 

 Rocky Mountain region, in Arizona and 

 New Mexico, western yellow pine pre- 

 dominates (the FlagstaiT region in Ari- 

 zona is said to have the largest abso- 

 lutely unbroken pine forest now extant 

 in the world), to the northward through 

 Wyoming and into Montana lodgepole 

 pine becomes a more important compo- 

 nent of the whole. Utah and southern 

 Idaho are also in this Rocky Mountain 

 type of varying pine and spruce forest 

 of which but one species, western yel- 

 low pine, is a thoroughly excellent tree 

 for universal purposes, but which is all 

 valuable for local and special use and 

 as a protector of a great watershed. 



Northern Montana and Idaho are 

 unique in being the meeting ground of 

 Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast for- 

 est conditions, for wide arid areas pre- 

 vent such a meeting in the states far- 

 ther south. Here all the species de- 

 scribed above are found, while cedar 

 and hemlock testify approach to the 

 moister climate of the coast. From the 

 lumberman's standpoint, however, it is 

 none of these outposts from either side 

 that make the region interesting but 

 the dominance of the two species that 

 find here their highest development — 

 western white pine and larch, or tam- 

 arack. The latter grows on dryer soils, 

 mixed with red fir or yellow pine. The 

 fresher situations bear magnificent 

 stands of white pine, sometimes mixed 

 with valuable pole cedar, and this pine, 

 although a different species to botan- 

 ists, serves every purpose for which the 

 disappearing eastern white pine is a fa- 

 vorite. Its rapid growth as well as its 



