BULLETIN 1060, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Olympic Peninsula (Washington) along the Soleduck, Dickey, and 
Hoko Rivers at elevations between 400 and 600 feet. 
The upper altitudinal limit has been noted by many observers as 
being higher in the northern part of its range than farther south; 
it is seldom, however, more than 3,000 feet above sea level. In the 
States it is doubtful whether it grows at that elevation; actually 
it has been found at 2,500 feet on the west side of the Olympic 
Mountains, at 2,100 feet near Bandera in the Cascade Kange of 
Washington, and at about 2,100 feet on the slopes of Saddle Moun- 
tain in Clatsop County, Oreg. (PI. I.) Although botanically it 
does occur at these elevations, an altitude of about 1,200 feet marks 
the upper limit of its growth in commercial quantities. The lower 
limit extends to the very surf line of the Pacific. 
PRESENT SUPPLY AND ANNUAL CUT. 
The total stand of Sitka spruce in America is estimated at 40 
to 44 billion feet. As shown in Table 1, more than one-third 
occurs in Alaska, one-third in British Columbia, and the remainder 
in Washington, Oregon, and California. 
It is estimated that about 1,600 million board feet of the most ac- 
cessible spruce has been cut since the estimates given in Table 1 were 
made. 2 An additional billion board feet is estimated to have blown 
down by the catastrophic wind storm of January, 1921, which oc- 
curred in the heart of the Sitka spruce belt of Washington. 
Table 1. — Estimated stand of Sitka spruce in 1918.* 
State : Million feet b. m. 
Alaska 15, 000 to 18, 000 
British Columbia 15,186 
State : Million feet b. m. 
Washington 6, 575 
Oregon 4,374 
California 187 
Sitka spruce forms only 1.5 per cent by volume of the total mer- 
chantable stand of timber west of the Cascades in Oregon and Wash- 
ington. In British Columbia it comprises 6.7 per cent of the timber 
along the coast. Of the coastal forests of southeastern Alaska it 
forms about 20 per cent. Approximately 50 per cent of the entire 
stand of Sitka spruce is in private ownership. Detailed estimates 
of ownership appear in Table 10. 
The cut of spruce in Washington and Oregon increased over 50 
per cent in the year 1918, and practically all of this increase was 
made up of Sitka spruce. The cut of spruce in the United States 
increased very little, and in general is declining. For a number of 
2 " Supplies and Production of Aircraft Woods," by W. N. Sparbawk, National Advisory 
Committee for Aeronautics, Fifth Annual Report. Rpt. 67, p. 9, 1919. 
a Figures for all localities except British Columbia compiled by Forest Service from 
county records and private, State, and Government estimates. British Columbia figures- 
from " Forests of British Columbia," by H. N. Whitford and R. D. Craig, p. 330, 1918. 
