FORESTS OF THE PACIFIC 

 COAST 



BY WILLIS LINN JEPSON 



Associate Professor of Dendrology, 

 University of California 



THE forests of the Rocky Mountains do not 

 usually make a strong impression upon the 

 railway traveler. Journeying westward over 

 the old "Overland Route," one may cross the great 

 backbone of the continent by a slope so gradual and 

 treeless that he may scarcely be aware of his transi- 

 tion from the barren Great Plains to the hot sage- 

 brush of the Great Basin. Extensive forests, to be 

 sure, occur in the Rocky Mountains, but in their 

 southerly part they are mostly limited to the higher 

 ranges. 



One species in these coniferous forests is more 

 widespread and abundant than any other. It is 

 characterized by two needles and small bur-like 

 cones, and is everywhere known in this region as 

 the lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. murrayana). 

 Its slender, bamboo-like trunks form admirable 

 poles for the tent dwellings of the plains Indians. 

 Unlike most other western conifers it has a very 

 thin bark and suffers severely under fire, but its 

 abundant cones, often remaining closed for several 

 years, provide a safeguard against excessive mor- 

 tality by forest conflagrations. 



The western yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa), 

 Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) , white fir 

 (Abies concolor) and, in Idaho, the western larch 

 (Larix occidentalis) are other species which inhabit 

 this area. The first named species is remarkable in 

 that it is accommodated to a greater variety of soil, 

 exposure and climate than any other North Ameri- 

 can coniferous tree. 



By whatever route the traveler sets his face 

 westward to the Pacific from the Rocky Mountains, 

 hundreds of miles of monotonous, sage-brush weary 

 his eyes ere he breast the Sierras or Cascades and 

 views with expectant gaze forests which are among 

 the botanical wonders of the world. These forests 

 of the Pacific Coast of the United States really form 

 only a narrow, coastal strip on the western edge of 

 the continent, clothing the Coast Range and the 

 slopes of the next succeeding inner range. It is in 

 Oregon and Washington that this forest attains its 

 most extensive development, a few species or even 

 a single one being dominant over extensive areas. 



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