2 BULLETIN 1060, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
reached by lumbering operations ; hence until recently the cut of this 
timber had been relatively small. It was not well known in the 
world or national markets until an extraordinary demand for it 
arose during the war because its wood was found to be superior for 
airplane construction. Within the space of a few months in 1917 
this species, which had been of decidedly secondary importance in 
the lumber industry, became one of the woods most eagerly sought. 
To effect an enormous increase in the production of Sitka spruce 
and to obtain lumber of the quality needed for airplane wing beams, 
a special organization of the War Department — the Spruce Pro- 
duction Division — was created. The great activity of this organiza- 
tion in promoting the lumbering of this needed Sitka spruce air- 
plane stock in conjunction with the local lumber industry is one of 
the interesting chapters in the history of the war industries. 1 
Although Sitka spruce may never again be so eagerly sought and 
so extensively cut as during the war, it has so many superior quali- 
ties in the estimation of foresters and lumbermen that it will always 
play an important role in the forest management of the Pacific 
coast region. It has a habit of rapid growth, makes a large yield 
per acre, lends itself fairly well to forest management, and produces 
a wood which has large value for many special purposes, prominent 
among which is the manufacture of paper. 
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION AND ALTITUDINAL RANGE. 
The botanical range of Sitka spruce, as shown in figure 1, lies 
along the north Pacific coast, roughly between 40° and 60° of lati- 
tude, and in that narrow strip of shore line often described as the 
fog belt. Its width is nowhere more than 200 miles from the coast 
line eastward, and usually much less. 
In Alaska this species occurs as far north as the west shore of 
Cook Inlet, the north end of Kodiak Island, and along the Lynn 
Canal, and is generally abundant southward, on the islands and 
mainland near the coast of southeastern Alaska. In British Colum- 
bia it is found chiefly along the shore line and on the lowlands of 
the large rivers like the Fraser. 
In the United States it is found in the western part of the State 
of Washington on the lower benches and bottomlands of the rivers 
along the Pacific coast, and less commonly about Puget Sound, oc- 
curring sporadically in the foothills of the Cascade Range. In 
Oregon it is found under similar conditions but almost exclusively 
west of the crest of the Coast Range; it extends up the Columbia 
River only 50 miles from its mouth, and farther south not more than 
1 " History of Spruce Production Division, United States Army," issued by the United 
States Spruce Production Corporation. 
