WESTERN WHITE PINE AND LARCH-FIR FORESTS 5 
It applies equally to the owners of land, in large tracts or farm 
wood lots, the earning ¢apacity of which lies solely in the growing 
of trees and which, without tree growth, will become either a doubt- 
ful asset or an outright lability. . 
The Forest Service earnestly asks the forest landowners of the 
-United States to determine for themselves, with the same care with 
which they would approach any other business problem, whether 
timber growing does not offer a commercial opportunity which should 
be grasped. It commends this series of bulletins to them, not as a 
complete or authoritative scheme that can forthwith be followed 
with profit in their own woods, but as a starting point in utilizing 
the opportunities that forestry may hold out. 
THE REGION AND FOREST TYPES 
That portion of the inland empire which includes the Idaho “ pan- 
handle” north of the Salmon River and the northeast corner of 
Washington, and extends east in Montana to the Continental Divide, 
contains five distinct and important forest types. Two of these—the 
western yellow pine and the lodgepole pine types—although exten- 
sive outside this region, are mainly transitional here. A third type, 
the Engelmann spruce, is confined almost wholly within the bounda- 
ries of national forests, where timber growing and logging practice 
follow definite Forest Service requirements and need no special 
explanation. The remaining types are those covered in this bul- 
pose western white pine type and the western larch-Douglas 
r type. 
Of the two the western white pine type is the more extensive, 
covering the Idaho panhandle and the tip of Washington and run- 
ning in outliers or stringers into northwestern Montana. Interlaced 
with it are other types, the Engelmann spruce at the upper margins 
and the larch-fir at the lower. 
The larch-fir type is found in lesser degree than the western 
white pine type throughout the same region. It is usually inter- 
mediate between the western white pine and the western yellow pine 
and blends somewhat with both. Where the larch-fir type occurs 
within the yellow pine belt it occupies the moister north and east 
slopes. Within the white pine zone it occurs more often on sites 
with a southerly aspect, or on upper slopes too dry for the white 
pine. Its most characteristic occurrence is in northwestern >Mon- 
tana. Here the larch-fir attains its most important development 
mS is distinctly the major type, covering large areas in unbroken 
orests. 
Although the western white pine and larch-fir types are closely 
identified in extent and frequently merge in individual stands, 
logging methods and silviculture in the two types differ consid- 
erably. Furthermore, in susceptibility to fire, in inflammability of 
slashings, and in other particulars the differences are marked. For 
this reason the two types are treated separately in this bulletin. .For 
the most part, and unless otherwise specified, the western white 
pine type is represented by the forests of northern Idaho, the larch- 
fir type by the forests of northwestern Montana. 
