A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 531 



meridian, largely on mountainous slopes and plateaus at relatively 

 low elevations in the northern part of its range and up to 8,000 feet or 

 more in places in the southern part. The type furnishes good feed 

 practically wherever it occurs. Ponderosa pine and its associated 

 tree species usually grow in stands sufficiently open to allow the de- 

 velopment of a great variety of herbs and shrubs. Over most of the 

 type the feed produced is mainly bunch grasses. Grama grass an 

 excellent forage species, is abundant on the eastern slopes of the 

 Rocky Mountains and in the Southwest. Many range weeds and 

 shrubs add variety to the feed. 



The sugar pine ponderosa pine forests, which are principally in 

 California, are more dense than the typical ponderosa pine areas, 

 and therefore less feed occurs on the forest floor. The understory 

 vegetation is mainly of browse, a large part of which is composed of 

 such palatable species as bluebrush, birchleaf mountain-mahogany, 

 and bitterbrush. Many of the other brush species are of low grazing 

 value. Grasses and range weeds are important in places, but on forest 

 slopes tend to dry up by midsummer. 



Another forest type which furnishes considerable forage in the 

 West is the aspen ^ type. It occurs at medium to high elevations, 

 usually on deep, rich soils which it helps to build up. It is of im- 

 portance in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, parts of Idaho, 

 and northern New Mexico and Arizona. Beneath the aspen, which 

 ordinarily grows in rather open stands, is usually a luxuriant under- 

 story of palatable grasses, weeds, and browse that is grazed with 

 relish by all kinds of livestock. The aspen itself is prolific in produc- 

 ing sprouts that are rather palatable to livestock but that can be 

 seriously damaged by too great foliage and twig removal through 

 browsing. 



The lodgepole pine forest, which covers large areas in the central 

 and northern Rocky Mountains and on the east side of the Cascades, 

 usually occurs in stands too dense to allow satisfactory grazing, 

 especially since most of the herbaceous and shrubby species present 

 are of low feed value. However, in the more accessible open stands, 

 some use is made of the forage produced. In the western larch- 

 western white pine forests of northwestern Montana, northern 

 Idaho, and northeastern Washington, the stand is so dense that 

 there is even less grazing than in the lodgepole pine. 



The spruce-fir forest, which occurs at higher elevations in the 

 mountains of the West, produces little forage in the more dense 

 stands. However, in the subalpine phase of the type, where the 

 stands are more open and patchy, good feed is produced in the 

 openings sufficient in quantity to furnish some of the best summer 

 range in the West. 



In the Douglas fir and redwood forests of the west coast, a heavy 

 undergrowth, chiefly of ferns and of salal and other brush species, 

 occurs in spite of the dense stand of timber, and because of its low 

 forage value renders these areas practically worthless for grazing. 

 After destructive fires a luxuriant growth of moderately palatable 

 herbaceous and browse plants ordinarily prevails for some years 

 until forest reproduction shades it out. Good feed is also produced 

 for a number of years on cut-over areas of these forest types that have 

 been reseeded to forage plants. 



