Black bears peel and eat the sweet, succulent 

 inner bark of young Douglas-fir in the spring. 

 Bear-killed trees occur on about 40,000 acres 

 annually in western Oregon. 



Bear Damage 



1-25 



26-50 51-75 76-99 100 

 Circumference peeled 

 (percent) 



A survey of bear-damaged Douglas-fir in western 

 Oregon found about one-third of the damaged 

 trees were completely girdled and destined to die. 

 Those girdled 76 to 99% are also likely to die. 



Source: Oregon Department of Forestry survey. 



western Cascades, damage intensity differs 

 considerably from one area to another. Sur- 

 veys since 1988 do not show a clear trend of 

 increasing or decreasing damage. Damage in 

 some areas is severe enough to warrant bear 

 management programs. 



Various Species 

 Western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and 

 western white pine are affected by several 

 insects and diseases — ^In northwest Oregon, 

 western hemlock is host to annosus root dis- 

 ease, hemlock dwarf mistletoe, and hemlock 

 sawfly and looper. Sitka spruce weevil is an 

 important pest of Sitka spruce regeneration in 



Hemlock dwarf mistletoe causes witches brooms, 

 deforms branches, and decreases tree growth. 

 Some wildlife species, such as the marbled 

 murrelet, nest in branches deformed by dwarf 



mistletoe. Photo courtesy of Kim Nelson. 



coastal Oregon and has deterred foresters from 

 regenerating spruce over much of its natural 

 range. The range and abundance of western 

 white pine, found mostly in the western Cas- 

 cades, has been reduced by the introduced dis- 

 ease white pine blister rust. But planting seed- 

 lings bred for resistance to the disease, pruning 

 young trees, and rating sites for hazard is en- 

 suring the continued presence of western white 

 pine in Northwest forests. 



Oregon — 29 



