FOREST SUCCESSION IN THE CENTRAL ROCKY 



MOUNTAINS^ 



By Carlos G. Batks 



Forest Bxaminer, Forest Service, Denver, Colo. 



The subject of succession as a phase of ecology is the pecuHar 

 property of foresters. Not only were foresters the first to put to 

 general and practical use the principles of ecology as a whole, but they 

 were doubtless also the first to realize in connection with a practical 

 and economic question that the denudation of an area bearing a certain 

 kind of vegetation was not always followed by the return of the original 

 vegetative type. This was brought to their attention, for instance, in 

 the denudation of the mountains of France and of Italy, which, after 

 remaining practically as waste lands for several decades, have finally 

 been restocked with forests at great expense. In a lesser degree, the 

 managed cuttings result in a natural succession, as, for instance, when 

 a spruce-beech forest reproduces primarily in beech, with the spruce 

 returning only after a considerable lapse of time. The European for- 

 ester, with his long experience in dealing with succession, has not only 

 learned to recognize its laws in a rough way but to control the opera- 

 tion of such laws by a system of management fitted to the particular 

 case, of which the main silvicultural feature is the degree or kind of 

 cutting to be performed. 



It is because of this practical bearing of succession upon forest 

 management that foresters feel an intense interest in the scientific 

 development of the subject and hope to assist in such development. 

 In giving such assistance they are likely to be out-run by grazing ex- 

 perts, agronomists, and other students who deal with short-lived vege- 

 tation. But even though the completion of a sere may with arboreal 

 vegetation require a period of 100 years or more, the fact still stands 

 that forests will present the finest examples of succession and one of 

 the most, if not the most, fertile field for its study. Furthermore, we 

 must recognize that under a large variety of conditions, the search for 

 the climax formation leads one to the forest. Just how far it is true 

 that the forest will ultimately form the climax in every sere left to its 

 natural development, I am not prepared to say, though Clements appar- 

 ently holds that this is the general rule. 



Read before the Botanical Society at Washington, D. C, February 6, 1917. 



587 



