UPPER SANDS 

 CREEK STUDY 



Establishment 



This study was located in the Sands Creek drainage of the Deception Creek Experi- 

 mental Forest at an elevation averaging about 3,500 feet on middle-to-lower northerly 

 slopes. It was established in a 16-year-old stand composed mainly of grand fir 

 (Abies gvandis (Dougl.) Lindl . ) , western hemlock, and western white pine. White .pine 

 seed trees that had been left after logging in 1916-1918 were removed in 1935 when the 

 cleaning treatments were applied. Tlie study installations consist of three blocks of 

 three 1/10-acre plots, two cleaned and one uncleaned in each block. 



Cleaning reduced average density of all the trees over 0.5 foot in height from 

 nearly 7,000 per acre to about 1,600 per acre. Tlie average percentage of highly 

 favored western white pine was raised from 21 to 81 percent. Western redcedar was left 

 where it occurred, but not many trees of this species were present in this study area. 



Results 



In the check plots, western white pine, hemlock, and grand fir grew at nearly the 

 same rates for the first 20 years after study establishment. Thereafter, grand fir 

 outgrew the white pine and western hemlock by about 0.6 foot per year (fig. 4). White 

 pine's drop in performance was partly attributable to blister-rust infection and loss 

 of several of the larger trees. As a result, nearly two-thirds of the codominant and 

 dominant stand consisted of grand fir by the end of the period of study. The western 

 redcedar remained severely suppressed and few reached sapling size. 



Tlie high percentage of favored western white pine that had been left in the cleaned 

 plots was quickly lowered by the aggressive regrowth of grand fir and western hemlock. 

 Although the white pine grew rapidly and maintained nearly complete dominance (fig. 4), 

 by 30 years after the cleaning the other two major species had regained sufficient 

 representation to constitute about two-thirds of all the trees and one-third of the 

 total basal area. Again, in spite of the preferential treatment it received, 

 the typically slow-growing redcedar was soon overtopped. 



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