GENERAL FOREST ASPECTS 



Table 18. The Forests of the Three Forks Section. 



91 



The forests are confined to higher elevations mostly above 

 6000 feet and consist mainly of lodgepole pine as the main zone, 

 merging below into yellow pine and Douglas spruce and above 

 into limber and whitebark pine, Engelmann spruce and alpine 

 fir. In some places the lodgepole forest covers the Divide at 

 7000 feet. Only as the summits rise to greater heights does the 

 character of their forest covering assume the aspect imparted by 

 the spruces and firs, though in the sheltered canyons these genera 

 may descend much lower. 



The Yellowstone Section (No. 11) occupies the upper Yel- 

 lowstone drainage in Montana. From the northwest corner of 

 the Yellowstone Park it extends 120 miles along the southern 

 boundary of Montana, and 100 miles to the north including the 

 Crazy Mountains. In this section, covering some 10,000 square 

 miles, are the highest peaks and some of the most rugged topog- 

 raphy in Montana. From the Absaroka and the Beartooth 

 ranges flow numerous streams northward to the Yellowstone 

 River, which from the north gains a few affluents from the 

 Crazy Mountains. To the west the Gallatin and Bridger ranges 

 form the watershed between the upper Yellowstone and the Mis- 

 souri, in altitude varying from 5000 feet in Bozeman Pass to 

 10,000 on some of the higher peaks. In the Absarokas the high- 

 est peak reaches nearly 13,000 feet. 



The Yellowstone Valley is broad and treeless, except along 

 the immediate stream bottoms. The coniferous vegetation occurs 

 above 5500 or 6000 feet where a fringe of limber and yellow 

 pine, Douglas spruce and juniper marks the lower edge of the 

 forest. Between 6000 and 8000 feet the lodgepole pine forms 



