FOREST RESOURCES OF THE PONDEROSA PINE REGION 



Forest Inventory 



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jk N important factor immediately apparent from 

 /-\ the inventory phase of the forest survey is 

 "*- -•■ that the distance from seaports and markets 

 and lack of navigable waterways (figs. 4 and 5), 

 together with the numerous light stands which 

 necessitate extended log transportation systems, 

 have unquestionably retarded utilization of the 

 forest resources. On the other hand, lumbering has 

 been furthered by the intrinsic value of ponderosa 

 pine and the favorable topography for logging. 

 Lumbering has been carried on in parts of this 

 region for half a century or more, but it has been 

 conducted on a large scale only for the past two or 

 three decades. Extensive stands of virgin timber 

 remain, most of them in public ownership, but a 

 large part are not now economically available. 



The forests of eastern Washington differ consider- 

 ably in composition and character from those of 

 eastern Oregon. (See forest type maps of the six 

 survey units of the ponderosa pine region at end of 

 this publication.) That part of the Chelan-Colville 

 unit east and north of the Okanogan River occupies 

 the slopes and hills of the Colville Mountains. This 

 unit has large stands of virgin timber in which little 

 cutting has taken place, chiefly because of inaccessi- 

 bility and poor quality of the timber. In the south, 

 ponderosa pine predominates; in the north, western 

 larch, balsam firs, Engelmann spruce, and Douglas- 

 fir are the chief species. The high ridges are occu- 

 pied by lodgepole pine. This locality has had an 

 unfortunate fire history; most of the larger burns 

 have reforested, but in some instances lodgepole 

 pine type has replaced the original type, usually 

 upper slope. 



The east slope of the Cascade Range in northern 

 Washington is extremely rugged and is character- 



ized by large areas of nonforest land and noncom- 

 mercial forests. The larger valleys and foothills 

 support commercial timber, chiefly ponderosa pine. 

 Farther south the Cascade Range becomes less 

 rugged and the proportion of ponderosa pine in- 

 creases and the quality improves. Some of the 

 finest ponderosa pine stands in the region grow in 

 Klickitat County, the most southerly county in 

 eastern Washington. 



In Oregon the east slope of the Cascade Range is 

 a high plateau surmounted by an occasional vol- 

 canic peak or butte. As a consequence the pon- 

 derosa pine zone extends from the dry timber line to 

 within a few miles of the summit. Along the sum- 

 mit is a belt of upper-slope and lodgepole pine 

 types which seldom exceeds 6 miles in width. Sur- 

 rounding the high peaks are subalpine forests. In 

 Oregon this zone varies in width from 10 to 15 

 miles on the north to as much as 75 miles on the 

 broad Klamath Plateau on the south. Extensive 

 areas of cut-over land supporting second-growth 

 pine are found from Bend south to the California 

 line. 



The Blue Mountains, which except for several 

 hundred square miles are entirely in eastern Ore- 

 gon, have a greater variety of forest conditions than 

 the east slopes of the Cascade Range. In the 

 southern and western parts ponderosa pine forms 

 the characteristic type. In the eastern and north- 

 ern parts the mountains are higher and more 

 rugged, the ponderosa pine is restricted to the val- 

 leys and foothills, and mixed types predominate. 

 Large areas of lodgepole pine and subalpine types 

 occur at the higher elevations of the Blue and 

 Wallowa Mountain Ranges. 



Farm land is generally limited to the nonforest 

 zone except tor grazing land. 



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