FORESTS OF KOOKY .MOUNTAINS FOREST RESERVE 



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the stands have been severely opened up. Since fir seedlings are able to develop even 

 on sod, volunteer growth is usually fairly good, unless it is destroyed by some agent, 

 as cattle or fire. 



On Site I farther up in the mountains, and in the moist valleys in the foothills, 

 the pure spruce type predominates. An admixture of scattered pine or Douglas fir. 

 with some small-sized alpine fir (locally known as ' balsam ') may form a minor part 

 of the stand. Domination of the type by pine is rather uncommon and mostly con- 

 finod to the slopes, and can. in many cases, be traced to the influence of some former 

 fire on the composition. Bal-am poplar occasionally occurs on the moistest ground, 

 reaching a diameter of thirty inches. It may form narrow strips along the edges of 



Plate 4 Pure Lodgepole Pine Type. 



Photo A. Knechtel. 



streams, or be mixed with the spruce. The spruce stands here show considerably 

 larger development of trees and heavier yields than on higher sites. The largest 

 sizes are, as a rule, on the lowest ground, except on broad river-flats where the gravelly 

 raw soil checks the growth and produces stands of small timber. Typical stands 

 have a wide range of size and age compared to stands on other sites. The crown- 

 cover is usually rather dense, and on account of the individual crowns of the shade- 

 enduring spruce trees being also dense, the ground is heavily shaded. The shade, 

 combined with the usually large amount of soil moisture, keeps the surface con- 

 ditions moist and rather raw, and promotes a rather luxuriant growth of sphagnum 

 and other mosses, which have an important influence on reproduction, as they often 

 form a carpet as thick as four or five inches. Undergrowth is usually light on 

 account of the shade, and consists mainly of a few willows and hazel bushes, but 

 the uneven size of the trees in the stand leaves openings under which occur groups 

 of undergrowth and volunteer growth. 



Site II includes the slopes above Site I. extending as high up as the soil remains 

 moderately deep. Here are found stands with spruce and pine mixed in varying 



