UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 1060 



&• —^ _ _ ... „.l. . *§ 



Contribution from the Forest Service 

 WILLIAM B. GREELEY. Forester 



Sl&'<$3 : L 



Washington, D. C. 



May, 1922 



SITKA SPRUCE: ITS USES, GROWTH, AND 

 MANAGEMENT. 



By N. Leeoy Cary, Forest Examiner. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Geographic distribution and altitudi- 



nal range 2 



Present supply and annual cut 4 



Characteristics of the wood 5 



Uses ! 6 



Logging and milling 8 



Size, age, and distinguishing charac- 

 teristics 10 



Occurrence 12 



Bottom-land type 12 



Page. 



Slope type 13 



Composition and volume of stand — 13 



Climatic and soil requirements 15 



Light requirements 10 



Reproduction 16 



Causes of injury 18 



Growth 23 



Yield 27 



Management 28 



Appendix , 33 



INTRODUCTION. 



Sitka spruce (Picea sitchemsis (Bong.) Trautv. and Mayer), also 

 called tideland spruce, is an important timber tree of the Pacific coast 

 region, growing naturally from Alaska to northern California. It 

 is found largely at low altitudes and never very far from the ocean. 

 In Alaska it is the principal tree of commerce; in Oregon and Wash- 

 ington it is one of the components of the dense and luxuriant conifer- 

 ous forest that blankets the humid strip of country on the west side 

 of the coastal ranges. Here several of its associate trees are more 

 abundant than Sitka spruce; but in the superior qualities of its wood, 

 in its magnificent form, and in its immense size it has no superior 

 except the redwood with which it mixes at the south end of its range. 



Because Sitka spruce does not ordinarily occur in pure stands, 

 it must be logged in conjunction with other timber species — with 

 Douglas fir, western hemlock, and western red cedar in Washington 

 and Oregon, and with the western hemlock in Alaska. The greater 

 part of the virgin forests in which Sitka spruce occurs has not been 



Nora. — The writer wishes to acknowledge the valuable assistance given him by Monsra. 



II. T. OlHborne, R. 11. Weldmun, and others in Hie |>r cpnrntlon of this mnmiBcrlpt. 

 85509—22 1 



