16 MISC. PUBLICATION 162, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
even higher value to the Nation than the production of wood 
(figs. 10). 
The species most utilized are the valuable western white pine of 
the northern Rockies and the ponderosa pine which is scattered 
throughout the whole Rocky Mountain region. 
Rocky Mountain forests are made up mostly of coniferous species. 
Among these, in addition to the two just mentioned, are Douglas 
fir; western larch; western red cedar; western and mountain hem- 
lock ; lodgepole, limber, whitebark, bristlecone, and piion pines; al- 
pine, white, and lowland white firs: Engelmann, blue, and white 
spruces; junipers; cedars; and cypresses. Aspens, cottonwoods, oaks, 
walnut, sycamore, alder, and boxelder are some of the few hardwoods 
of this region. 
F—33406A 
FicurE 10.—A forest-covered watershed of the Rocky Mountain region. 
The forests of this region play an important part in watershed protection. 
Paciric Coast Forest REGION 
The Pacific coast forest region extends from the Canadian border 
through the western half of ‘Washington and Oregon and into Cali- 
fornia. In the southern portion of California the timbered lands 
are surrounded by narrow margins of low broadleaf-tree forest or 
chaparral. 
What are perhaps the heaviest stands of timber in the world are 
to be found in the Pacific Coast States. They contain the last great 
commercial bodies of softwood timber remaining in the United 
States, the greatest bodies of virgin forest yet uncut. Each year 
sees more western lumber on eastern markets. The figures for 1938 
show that the three Pacific Coast States, together with Nevada, pro- 
duced 40 percent of the lumber cut in this country,. as against 43 
