UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



m BULLETIN No. 418 



KfA^^^S^iw/fy Contribution front the Forest Service •! 



jru^'^wt. 



Contribution from the Forest Service 

 HENRY S. GRAVES, Forester 



S\^'^>~fU 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



February 6, 1917 



WESTERN YELLOW PINE IN OREGON. 



By Thornton T. Munger, Forest Examiner. 



Introduction i 



Requirements 5 



Reproduction 6 



Effect of flres 9 



Sources of injury other than fire 12 



Character of the stands 17 



Growth 23 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



29 



30 



32 



35 



Management of western yellow -pine forests. . 36 

 Appendix 43-48 



Characteristics of the wood 



Utilization of yellow-pine forests. 



Logging and milling 



Planting 



INTRODUCTION. 



Western yellow pine^ (Pinus ponderosa Laws.) is known throughout 

 its range simply as pine or yellow pine, and in the lumber trade of 

 the Northwest as western pine. It is sometimes called western soft 

 pine or, more rarely, Oregon white pine. The terms used by California 

 lumbermen are "western white pine" and "California white pine." 



It is the most widely distributed pine in the United States and 

 one of the most valuable. It is suited to a great variety of uses and 

 throughout much of its range suppUes nearly every local need. Its 

 large size, good form, occurrence in large and easily accessible bodies, 

 and the high technical quahties of its wood place it near the top of 

 the list of commercially important American timber trees. The 

 reported cut in the United States in 1915 was 1,252,244,000 feet, 

 which places yellow pine seventh in rank if the oaks are considered 

 collectively. California leads the States, with a cut (in 1915) of 

 389,091,000 feet, and Oregon is third with an annual output of 

 189,203,000 feet. There is estimated to be in the United States 



1 Seven distinct species of pines occur naturally in the State of Oregon: (1) western white pine (Pinus 

 monticrila), the "Idaho while pine" of the markets, a valuable timber tree found in Oregon in rather 

 limited quantities, chiefly in the mountains; (2) sugar pine (Pinus lamhertiana), the important timber 

 tree of California, which in Oregon occurs chiefly in the Cascades and other ranges in the southwestern 

 part of the State; (Z) white bark pine (Pinus alblcaulis), a small, scrubbj' tree found on mountain tops 

 throughout the Northwest; (i) knobcone pine (Pinus aUcnuala), a small tree of almost no commercial 

 importance, which is found hero and there in dry situations in the southwestern portion of the State; (5)' 

 lodgepole pine (Pinus contorla), also locally called black pine, jack pine, and shore pine, a small yet ex- 

 tremely hardy and aggressive tree that grows on both the coastal strip and nearly up to timber line on 

 the mountains and covers vast areas of plateau in the central part of the State with pure stands of small 

 trees: ^f>) JefTroy pine (Pinus jef/rcyi), a timber tree of the Siskiyou Mountains and Califoniiii, which 

 strongly resembles western yellow pine; and (7) western yellow pine (I'inus ponderosa). 

 54891°— Bull. 41S— 17 1 



