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MISC. PUBLICATION 217, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Plains in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific coast forest regions. The 

 Pacific region, with about one-seventh of the total forest area of the 

 country, contains more than one-half (62 percent) of the total saw 

 timber of the United States, or about 1,042 billion board feet. 



One-half of the total standing softwood saw timber (pines, spruces, 

 firs, etc.) in the United States is contained in the two trees, Douglas 

 fir and ponderosa pine, both important in the two western forest 

 regions. Four-fifths of the total Douglas fir (530 billion board feet) 

 is growing in two States, Oregon and Washington, of the Pacific 

 coast region. Ponderosa pine, which ranks second in this country, 

 occurs to the extent of 70 percent of its total amount in the same 

 forest region. 



The Pacific coast forest region contains a total of 66,685,000 acres, 

 or about 13 percent, of the total forest area in the country. A forest 

 type dominated by Douglas fir (pi. 10) contains about 27,687,000 

 acres, and another in which ponderosa (western yellow) pine pre- 

 dominates, 25,070,000 acres. The type consisting mostly of sugar 

 pine and ponderosa pine has 10,183,000 acres, western white pine 

 and western larch an area of about 669,000 acres, spruce and fir 

 about 1,532,000 acres, and the coast redwood and the big tree jointly 

 1,544,000 acres. 



Lumbering operations going forward on a large scale are in fact 

 almost pure engineering. Many of the different trees produce 

 extremely large cuts of clear, useful lumber, much of which is now 

 being delivered by ships to many world ports, some via the Panama 

 Canal to the more important eastern harbors, where it is distributed 

 and sold widely in competition with local lumber. 



The important or more common trees in the two natural divisions 

 of the region are: 



PACIFIC COAST FOREST TREES 



Northern portion (western Washington 

 and western Oregon) : 

 Douglas fir. 

 Western hemlock. 

 Lowland white, noble, and silver 



firs. 

 Western red cedar. 

 Sitka and Engelmann spruces. 

 Western white pine. 

 Port Orford and Alaska cedars. 

 Western and Lyall larches. 

 Lodgepole pine. 

 Mountain hemlock. 

 Oaks, ash, maples, birches, alders, 

 Cottonwood, madrone. 



Southern portion (California) : 

 Ponderosa and Jeffrey pines. 

 Sugar pine. 

 Redwood and bigtree. 

 White, red, lowland white, and 



Shasta red firs. 

 Incense cedar. 

 Douglas fir. 

 Lodgepole pine. 

 Knobcone and digger pines. 

 Bigcone spruce. 



Monterey and Gowen cypresses. 

 Western and California junipers. 

 Singleleaf pinon. 

 Oaks, buckeye, laurel, alder, 



madrone. 



FORESTS OF ALASKA 



Along the southeastern coast of Alaska for more than 1,000 miles 

 stretches a gradually narrowing belt of dense forest made up of trees 

 of good sizes and commercial species. This is the most northern 

 extension of the mixed coniferous forest found in Oregon, Washington, 

 and British Columbia. About three-fourths of the total stand of 

 timber consists of western hemlock and the remainder mostly of 

 Sitka spruce, with small amounts of western red cedar and Alaska 



