INCENSE CEDAR. 27 



GROWTH AFTEE CUTTING. 



Examinations of recent cuttings on lands culled over 30 or 40 

 years ago indicate that the ability of incense cedar to recover from 

 suppression is slight, once the period of rapid diameter and height 

 growth is passed. Up to the present, however, observations have been 

 too limited to justify definite conclusions, and further study will be 

 necessary before its possibilities in this respect can be determined 

 conclusively. 



FOREST TYPES AND ASSOCIATED SPECIES. 



Incense cedar is confined to two main forest types — the semiarid or 



western yellow-pine type and the middle-slope or mixed-conifer type. 

 The first, in which yellow pine or Jeffrey pine predominates and 

 incense cedar is represented sparingly, forms a narrow belt in the 

 upper foothill zone, on the west slope of the Sierras and the east 

 slope of the northern coast ranges, between the digger pine and the 

 chaparral of the foothills and the mixed conifer stands of the timber 

 belt. This type also is found in a modified form on the lava beds in 

 northeastern California, where it covers large areas, and on the east 

 slopes of the Sierras, where it again forms a border along the lower 

 edge of the commercial timber zone. 



Most of the incense cedar, however, is found in the mixed conifer 

 forests of the middle slopes. This type is of varying composition, 

 being made up of western yellow pine, Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, white 

 fir, Douglas fir, and incense cedar in all proportions. In the southern 

 Sierras Douglas fir is absent; in central and northern California it 

 appears in constantly increasing proportions toward the north until, 

 in the Siskiyous, it is the predominating species. From lower to 

 higher elevations, too, the composition varies, the pines predominat- 

 ing at first, only to give way to the firs higher up. A variation of the 

 mixed-conifer type of the middle slope occurs on the east slope of the 

 Sierras, where Jeffrey pine and white fir predominate and incense 

 cedar occurs scatteringly. 



Incense cedar is sometimes found in the lower subalpine zone 

 mixed with white fir, red or Shasta fir, lodgepole pine, and even 

 western white pine. At lower elevations, where lodgepole pine 

 occurs in the vicinity of mountain meadows, incense cedar grows 

 near by on the drier portions of the site, but seldom mixes with it. 



At its extreme lower limits, where it is confined to ravines and 

 watercourses, incense cedar occurs occasionally with yew and Califor- 

 nia nutmeg ; and in the coast ranges it occurs with a number of broad- 

 leafed trees, among which are the broadleafed maple, alders, willows, 

 dogwood, madrona, chinquapin, and tanbark oak. 



Throughout the upper foothill belt on the west slope of the 

 Sierras, California black oak is a particularly common associate of 



