INCENSE CEDAR. 27 
GROWTH AFTER CUTTING. 
Examinations of recent cuttings on lands culled over 30 or 40 
years ago indicate that the ability of incense cedar to recover from 
suppression is slight, once the period of rapid diameter and height 
growth is passed. Up to the present, however, observations have been 
too limited to justify definite conclusions, and further study will be 
necessary before its possibilities in this respect can be determined 
conclusively. 
FOREST TYPES AND ASSOCIATED SPECIES. 
Incense cedar is confined to two main forest types — the semiarid or 
western yellow-pine type and the middle-slope or mixed-conifer type. 
The first, in which yellow pine or Jeffrey pine predominates and 
incense cedar is represented sparingly, forms a narrow belt in the 
upper foothill zone, on the west slope of the Sierras and the east 
slope of the northern coast ranges, between the digger pine and the 
chaparral of the foothills and the mixed conifer stands of the timber 
belt. This type also is found in a modified form on the lava beds in 
northeastern California, where it covers large areas, and on the east 
slopes of the Sierras, where it again forms a border along the lower 
edge of the commercial timber zone. 
Most of the incense cedar, however, is found in the mixed conifer 
forests of the middle slopes. This type is of varying composition, 
being made up of western yellow pine, Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, white 
fir, Douglas fir, and incense cedar in all proportions. In the southern 
Sierras Douglas fir is absent; in central and northern California it 
appears in constantly increasing proportions toward the north until, 
in the Siskiyous, it is the predominating species. From lower to 
higher elevations, too, the composition varies, the pines predominat- 
ing at first, only to give way to the firs higher up. A variation of the 
mixed-conifer type of the middle slope occurs on the east slope of the 
Sierras, where Jeffrey pine and white fir predominate and incense 
cedar occurs scatteringly. 
Incense cedar is sometimes found in the lower subalpine zone 
mixed with white fir, red or Shasta fir, lodgepole pine, and even 
western white pine. At lower elevations, where lodgepole pine 
occurs in the vicinity of mountain meadows, incense cedar grows 
near by on the drier portions of the site, but seldom mixes with it. 
At its extreme lower limits, where it is confined to ravines and 
watercourses, incense cedar occurs occasionally with yew and Califor- 
nia nutmeg ; and in the coast ranges it occurs with a number of broad- 
leafed trees, among which are the broadleaf ed maple, alders, willows, 
dogwood, madrona, chinquapin, and tanbark oak. 
Throughout the upper foothill belt on the west slope of the 
Sierras, California black oak is a particularly common associate of 
