CALIFORNIA FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



BY T. D. WOODBURY 



ASSISTANT DISTRICT FORESTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 



riIHE outstanding characteristics of California forests 

 is individuality. The monarch Bigtree (sequoia 

 washingtoniana) once, without doubt, widely dis- 

 tributed, has found its sole suitable sanctuary in the 

 protected recesses of the Sierra Nevada. Here, and here 

 only, has this giant been able to win a permanent victory 

 over inclement nature. The deformed and fire-scarred 

 trunks of individuals of this species furnish a unique 

 record of a two 

 thousand year 

 struggle for exist- 

 ence, the scientific 

 study of which has 

 opened a new page 

 in c 1 i m atological 

 history. 



The little big 

 brother of the Big- 

 tree the commer- 

 cial redwood 

 (sequoia sempervi- 

 rens) has found 

 our fog-belt, a nar- 

 row zone about 

 twenty-five miles 

 wide along the 

 shores of the Pa- 

 cific from the Ore- 

 gon line to Monte- 

 rey Bay, to its 

 liking, and is of 

 no importance out- 

 side of this terri- 

 tory. 



Sugar pine (pi- 

 nus lambertiana) , 

 that Pacific Coast 

 aristocrat of the 

 genus, has found 

 only in California 

 conditions suitable 

 for maximum de- 

 v e 1 o p m e n t, al- 

 though it has 

 wandered feebly across the state line into inhospitable 

 territory in a few localities. This sturdy tree, clean and 

 symmetrical, lends distinction and distinctiveness to our 

 forests, throughout the whole length of the state, bring- 

 ing joy alike to nature lovers because of its beauty and 

 to lumbermen because of its high quality, which has a 

 very pleasing effect on the bank balance. 



Incense cedar (libocedrus decurrens) the coming wood 

 for pencil manufacture, is also a "native son." While 



GROUP OF SUGAR PINES, SIERRA NATIONAL FOREST, CALIFORNIA 



not as impressive as either the Bigtree or sugar pine, its 

 wide distribution and enhancing value have secured for it 

 a permanent and increasingly important position in the 

 forests of this state. 



Several tree species of less commercial significance 

 also exhibit the same fondness for California. Among 

 these is the Monterey pine (pinus radiata) which confines 

 itself to a very restricted territory on Monterey Bay, and 



that dwarfed, 

 gnarled tree re- 

 cluse, the Torrey 

 pine (pinus tor- 

 reyana). The few 

 sole survivors of 

 this latter species 

 are to be found on 

 the coast near San 

 Diego, where they 

 are waging a losing 

 fight with the winds 

 of the Pacific. 



The commercial, 

 or mere hantable 

 forests of Cali- 

 fornia cover about 

 twenty million 

 acres, or roughly, 

 one-fifth of the 

 total area. There 

 are three rather 

 broad, distinct for- 

 est regions, the 

 Sierra Nevada 

 Mountain Range, 

 which skirts the 

 two large central 

 valleys of the state 

 on their eastern 

 edge, the northern 

 coast range, which 

 embraces the for- 

 ested portion of the 

 coast range from 

 Lake County 

 through Trinity and Siskiyou Counties northward to the 

 Oregon line and the Redwood belt, which lies between 

 the coast range and the Pacific Ocean from Monterey Bay 

 to above Crescent City. 



In the Sierra Nevada belt, sugar and western yellow 

 pine predominate in mixture with the Douglas, white 

 and California red firs and incense cedar. On the 

 eastern slope of these mountains sugar pine is 

 much less abundant than on the western slope and 



