BULLETIN 1060, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Olympic Peninsula (Washington) along the Soleduck, Dickey, and 

 Hoko Rivers at elevations between 400 and 600 feet. 



The upper altitudinal limit has been noted by many observers as 

 being higher in the northern part of its range than farther south; 

 it is seldom, however, more than 3,000 feet above sea level. In the 

 States it is doubtful whether it grows at that elevation; actually 

 it has been found at 2,500 feet on the west side of the Olympic 

 Mountains, at 2,100 feet near Bandera in the Cascade Range of 

 Washington, and at about 2,100 feet on the slopes of Saddle Moun- 

 tain in Clatsop County, Oreg. (PI. I.) Although botanically it 

 does occur at these elevations, an altitude of about 1,200 feet marks 

 the upper limit of its growth in commercial quantities. The lower 

 limit extends to the very surf line of the Pacific. 



PRESENT SUPPLY AND ANNUAL CUT. 



The total stand of Sitka spruce in America is estimated at 40 

 to 44 billion feet. As shown in Table 1, more than one-third 

 occurs in Alaska, one-third in British Columbia, and the remainder 

 in Washington, Oregon, and California. 



It is estimated that about 1,600 million board feet of the most ac- 

 cessible spruce has been cut since the estimates given in Table 1 were 

 made. 2 An additional billion board feet is estimated to have blown 

 down by the catastrophic wind storm of January, 1921, which oc- 

 curred in the heart of the Sitka spruce belt of Washington. 



Table 1. — Estimated stand of Sitka spruce in 1918.* 



State : Million feet b. m. 



Alaska 15, 000 to 18, 000 



British Columbia 15, 186 



State : Million feet b. m. 



Washington 6, 575 



Oregon 4, 374 



California 187 



Sitka spruce forms only 1.5 per cent by volume of the total mer- 

 chantable stand of timber west of the Cascades in Oregon and Wash- 

 ington. In British Columbia it comprises 6.7 per cent of the timber 

 along the coast. Of the coastal forests of southeastern Alaska it 

 forms about 20 per cent. Approximately 50 per cent of the entire 

 stand of Sitka spruce is in private ownership. Detailed estimates 

 of ownership appear in Table 10. 



The cut of spruce in Washington and Oregon increased over 50 

 per cent in the year 1918, and practically all of this increase was 

 made up of Sitka spruce. The cut of spruce in the United States 

 increased very little, and in general is declining. For a number of 



2 " Supplies and Production of Aircraft Woods," by W. N. Sparhawk, National Advisory 

 Committee for Aeronautics, Fifth Annual Report. Rpt. 67, p. 9, 1919. 



3 Figures for all localities except British Columbia compiled by Forest Service from 

 county records and private, State, and Government estimates. British Columbia figures 

 from " Forests of British Columbia," by H. N. Whitford and R. D. Craig, p. 330, 1918. 



