Pacific Northwest Forests

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The Northern Pacific Coast Coniferous Forest is a long but narrow belt of various species of coniferous and, some, hardwood trees occupying the coastal side of the Coast Range from northern California northward to the Gulf of Alaska. It consist of four or more subunits or major climax communities each of which occupies a segment of the north-south coastal belt. These distinctive climax or zonal divisions correspond to component forest cover types.

The entire Pacific Coast Forest and each of its distinctive component communities are some of the most magnificent, productive, and economically valuable forests on Earth. The commercial forests within the Pacific Coast Forest are the basis of the powerful and essential timber industry. This vegetation is neither a major source of range feed nor of big game habitat, but it is important in these capacities especially at local and regional levels. The forest vegetation is more productive of livestock and ungulate wildlife following disturbances such as logging that "open up the woods" and set the stage for forage and browse production as the forests grow back through secondary succession. In other words, these are usually transitory forest range. They are more valuable as range in the post-forest harvest transition, but even virgin or old-growth forest typically have botanically diverse multi-layered understories. Though these primeval forests are less productive of ungulate feed they can be viewed and managed as permanent forest range, especially for wildlife.

Photographs of the Pacific Coast Forest include virgin vegetation as permanent forest range and both scientifically managed and cut-over ("cut-and-run") forest as transitory forest range.

A useful way to visualize the North Pacific Coast Forest is the division by Kuchler

(1966) into:

Redwood Forest (Sequoia-Pseudotsuga)= K-6, FRES No.27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem),
Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas Fir Forest (Thuja-Tsuga-Pseudotsuga)= K-2, FRES No.20 (Douglas Fir Forest Ecosystem),
Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest (Picea-Thuga-Tsuga)= K-1, FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem), and
Hemlock-Spruce (Tsuga-Picea)= K-111, No FRES shown but logically is also No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem), moving respectively northward.

In addition there is a narrow band of vegetation which is composed primarily of "runt" trees interspersed with "regular" forests of coast redwood and western hemlock. This community of depauperate trees (largely an edaphic climax) was described by Vogl et al. in Barbour and Major (1995, ps. 295-358 passim) as "closed- cone pines and cypress". While both individual mature trees and tree community often have the height characteristics of shrubs they are coniferous tree species and have the single bole feature of trees. It seemed more logical to include this unique pygmy forest, as it is most commonly described, with forest rather than shrubland types.

These are potential natural vegetation or climax units. The Society of American Foresters classification "is based on existing tree cover", "… forests as they are today…". Eyre (1980) divided the Pacific Coast Forest into 10 SAF forest cover types: 223 (Sitka Spruce), 224 (Western Hemlock), 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce), 226 (Coastal True Fir-Hemlock), 227 (western Redcedar-Western Hemlock), 228 (Western Redcedar), 229 (Pacific Douglas-Fir), 230 (Douglas —Fir-Western Hemlock), 231 (Port Orford-Cedar), and 232 (Redwood).

Obviously the SAF split out single species managed on commercial forests almost as monocultures for economic advantages (eg. Pacific Douglas-Fir, Redwood). When adjustment is made for this necessity the FRES-Kuchler and Society of American Foresters units match very closely. In fact some are "perfect fits" (eg. K-111 and SAF 225). As with all interpretations of vegetation, much is subjective, value judgment-ridden, and "in the eye of the beholder". Efforts were made to correspond FRES-Kuchler units and SAF Cover Types as closely as possible.

1. One of the various forms or subtypes of the ponderosa pine forest range type is this one in the inland Pacific Northwest where the herbaceous understory layer is dominated by bluebunch wheatgrass and the shrub understory dominants are snowberry and antelope bitterbrush. This is a transition vegetation type or broad ecotone in the Columbia Basin between Palouse Prairie and the ponderosa pine zone of the Blue Mountains and Okanogan Highlands. In the classic Natural Vegetation of Oregon and Washington Franklin and Dryness (1973, p. 172-180) identified both ponderosa pine/ bluebunch wheatgrass and ponderosa pine/ bitterbrush/ bluebunch wheatgrass associations as transitions "between steppe or shrub-steppe and forest". Interior ponderosa pine type.

Spokane County, Washington. FRES No. 21 (Ponderosa Pine Ecosystem). K-10 (Western Ponderosa Pine Forest).SAF 237 (Interior Ponderosa Pine). Yellow Pine Series in Cascade-Sierran Montane Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

2. Douglas fir montane forest type-- interior Douglas fir type-- in Southern Rocky Mountain— This dense stand of Rocky Mountain Douglas fir is a north slope community along the Frasher River at an elevation of 8,000 to 9,000 feet. Canadian life zone of C. Hart Merriam. Arapaho National Forest, Gilpin County, Colorado.

FRES No. 20 (Douglas Fir Ecosystem). K-11 (Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 210 (Interior Douglas-fir). Pseudotsuga menziesii Association, Douglas Fir-White Fir (Mixed Conifer) Series in Rocky Mountain Montane Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

3. Interior Douglas fir forest range type growing on a bottomland or alluvial site along the Snake River— Ponderosa and limber pine (Pinus flexilis) are associated upperstory species. The herb layer is dominated by Poa, Festuca, andStipa species. Transition life zone of C. Hart Merriam. Targhee National Forest, Lincoln County, Wyoming.

FRES No. 21 (Douglas Fir Ecosystem).K-11 (Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 210 (Interior Douglas-fir) . Pseudotsuga menziesii Association, Douglas Fir-White Fir (Mixed Conifer) Series in Rocky Mountain Montane Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

4. Second-growth Douglas-fir Forest- This is an example of the typical Douglas-fir industrial or commercial forest. It is a single-species stand (forest monoculture) maintained silviculturally by clearcutting and replanting for efficient production and harvest of the most economically valuable lumber species in North America. A few scattered tanbark oak and Pacific madrone (Arbutus menziesii) are visible. Tens of thousands of acres of commercial forest grow this species as a crop just like monocultures of corn, soybeans, wheat, or cotton. It is not a natural forest community and, in fact, Douglas-fir may even be a subclimax species on some sites maintained as a Douglas-fir stand. It is a concept of Ecology that on some sites and under certain conditions subclimax vegetation may be the most productive: 1) ecologically in terms of net primary productivity, 2) agriculturally/silviculturally in terms of commodity (board foot of lumber in this case), and 3) economically (to maximize profit).

Understandably, some people express concerns about monocultural forestry and loss of species diversity along with changes in forest ecosystem structure and function. Such concerns are often justified, but a mixture of single-species (more or less) forests, natural forests including both old-growth and re-growth forest, and farm land can be more productive overall for an array of goods and services for people and even for wildlife. This emphasis is on can and assuming the "right blend". Reduction of old-growth forests is but one issue (though the most spectacular and political one) in this region-size problem in proper use of natural resources.

Humboldt County, California. June. This is not climax or potential natural vegetation so Kuchler units are not appropriate. It is a silvicultural (anthropogenic) portion of the overall Kuchler (1966) unit K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock -Douglas Fir Forest) which is one unit of FRES No. 20 (Douglas Fir Forest Ecosystem), SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

5. Pacific Douglas fir-mixed forest type in the Willamette Valley- Pacific Douglas fir is the obvious dominant tree species but bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) occurs commonly as a member of both the upperstory and shrub understory. Western hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) is a co-dominant shrub species.The dominant grass of the amazingly lush herb layer is reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) with Columbia bromegrass (Bromus vulgaris) the major association along with annual bromes (B. tectorum, B. mollis). Benton County, Oregon. FRES No. 21 (Douglas Fir Ecosystem). K-11 (Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

Pacific Douglas-fir Forest Range

Pacific Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) is the single most economically important lumber tree in North America. Given this tremendous economic importance, and thus the widespread and large-scale extent of production of Pacific Douglas-fir, the following section was devoted to the Pacific Douglas-fir forest cover type (SAF 229). Photographs and captions were applied to forest practices used in industrial forestry to produce lumber and other forest products from SAF 229 and the similar Douglas-fir-Western Hemlock (SAF 230). Other similar forest cover types such as Western Hemlock (SAF 224), Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce (SAF 225), and Western Redcedar-Western Hemlock (SAF 227) were included under Pacific Northwest Forests but treated in separate sections below. Emphasis was placed on range management aspects of the Pacific Douglas-fir and Douglas-fir-Western Hemlock types (ie. they were treated as forest range types). Much of the industrial or commercial forests of Douglas-fir and Douglas-fir-western hemlock are managed and produced as single- or two-species stands. Dense canopy cover of such stands typically makes these forests most valuable for range (both wildlife and livestock range) earlier in the rotation. In other words, such industrial forests are primarily transitory (vs.permanent) forest range.

This section was devoted to silvicultural systems used for production of Douglas-fir and Douglas-fi-western hemlock for wood products (namely lumber). Douglas-fir forest as a forest cover type is seral. In absence of continued, periodic disturbance like fire or windthrow naturally occurring Pacific Douglas-fir forests proceed via succession to climax forests dominated by shade-tolerant conifers like western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), western redcedar (Thuja plicata) or Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis) in which the long-lived (though seral) Douglas-fir trees persist as a component. Without natural disturbances, Pacific Douglas-fir (SAF 229) "...can be maintained only through the action of man in creating mineral seedbeds necessary for seedling establishment, and in opening dense cnopies to permint development of a new stand" (Eyre, 1980, p. 106). Slides and descriptions of Douglas-fir and Douglas-fir-western hemlock forest in this section dealt only with such anthropogenic industrial forest and, again, with an emphasis on the forest range facet of SAF cover types 229 and 230.

Examples of commercial production of Pacific Douglas-fir (SAF 229) shown below were taken variously from the Coast Ranges, Cascades, and Olympic Peninsula provinces (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, p. 6). Examples of Douglas-fir-Western Hemlock (SAF 230) were from the Olympic Peninsula.

Other forest cover types in which Douglas-fir was an important species were covered in seperate sections whithin the Pacific Northwest Forests and the Sierra, Cascade, and Coast Ranges Forests portions of this publication. Such forest range cover types included climax forests in which Douglas-fir was a major component (even the dominant species) that had persisted from from seral stages into the climax vegetation. These were often examples of old-growth forests.

One form of Pacific-Douglas-fir (SAF 229) recognized by ecologists as climax vegetation was presented immediately below this section on seral Pacific Douglas-fir industrial forestry.

6. Second-growth Douglas-fir forest- Potential natural vegetation of this site is climax Western Redcedar-Western Hemlock (SAF 227), but the forest is now in an advanced seral stage dominated by Pacific Douglas-fir so as to be functionally SAF 229. Almost all regeneration (seedlings and poles) in background was of western redcedar and westrn hemlock, both of which were rated as Very Tolerant (vs. Intermediate of Douglas-fir) by the Society of American Foresters (Wenger, 1984, p. 3).

Understorey dominants were various species of huckleberry (Vaccinium spp.), including red huckleberry (V. parviflorum). Olympic Peninsula province.

Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir).

7. Second growth Douglas-fir forest- The climax vegetation for this site isi Western Redcedar-Western Hemlock (SAF 230) but Douglas-fir which is typically a seral species of this cover type was still dominant with most cover and largest trees being Douglas-fir. This was a typical example of the silvicultural situation in which commercial forests in the Pacific Northwest are managed for the faster-growing and superior lumber-producing Douglas-fir instead of the climax conifers.

Most of the conifer regeneration in the forest community shown here was of the more tolerant climax.western redcedar and western hemlock, but the long-lived Douglas-firs would persist as a component of the climax forest. Dominant understorey plants were various species of huckleberry such as red huckleberry which is also often a member of the climax vegetation. Olympic Peninsula forest.

Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir).

8. Recent clearcut with natural regeneration of Douglas-fir- A small area of second-growth western redcedar-western hemlock-Douglas-fir forest in the Western Cascades of northwestern Oregon had been clearcut just before the current growing season. Regeneration of Douglas-fir from the soil seedbank was apparent as was a population of pioneer species like the common bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) and other composites. Sword fern (Polystichum munitum), a dominant understory forb species at all successional stages, was recovering and functioned as a pioneer species also.

Linn County, Oregon. June. FRES No.20 (Douglas-fir forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir-western hemlock/salal association of Kagan et al. (2004).

9. Regeneration of Douglas-fir on recent clearcut- New seedlings (barely visible in photograph) and older seedlings not killed during harvest operations were revegetating a "new" clearcut of a former second-grwoth western redcedar-western hemlock,-Douglas-fir forest in Western Cascades of northwestern Oregon. Bull thistle and sword fern were the major herbceous plants on this land undergoing secondary plant succession.

Linn County, Oregon. June.FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir/western hemlock-salal association of Kagan et al. (2004).

10. Two-year-old clearcut of Pacific Dougls-fir- View from leading edge of a two-year clearcut looking across main body of the harvested area. In foreground where Douglas-fir had been scattered so as to limit soil disturbance from logging there was immediate recovery of native and introduced perennial cool-season grasses and forbs. Major grasses were the native blue wildrye (Elymus glaucus) and the agronomic species orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). The introduced legume, wooly or, sometimes, hairy vetch (Vicia villosa= V.dasycarpa) was also common.

Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir-Oregon white oak/salal association (salal not shown in Kagan et al., 2004).

11. Interior of a two-year-old clearcut of Pacific Douglas-fir. Following light surface fire this clearcut had been replanted to Douglas-fir the previous year and was into the second summer after logging operations. Industrial forest in the Coast Ranges physiographic province.

Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir-Oregon white oak/salal association (salal not shown in Kagan et al., 2004).

12. Clearcut browse- Along part of the perimeter of a two-year-old Pacific Douglas-fir clearcut bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) and Oregon white oat or Garry oak (Quercus garryana) were sprouting from stumps following felling of trees during logging operations. Note also replanted Douglas-fir. Fire to reduce slash had been part of site preparation. Details of stump sprouting shown in two slides immediately below. This forest was in the Coast Ranges province.

Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir/Oregon white oak/salal association (salal not shown in Kagan et al., 2004).

13. Stump-sprouting (coppicing) of bigleaf maple- After felling during clearcutting of Douglas-fir this bigleaf maple responded by producing stump sprouts (long or heterophyllous shoots). Coppice is the term applied to production of new shoots from stumps or roots. The stump shoots of this maple were being heavily browsed by Columbia black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) as was obvious in this photograph. It is early stages of the rotation that Pacific Douglas-fir forest vegetation is most useful as range. This is true for both browse and herbaceous feed. Pacific Douglas-fir produced under the clearcutting silvicultural method tends to be mostly transitory forest range.

Coast Ranges province. Benton County, Oregon. June.

14. Stump-sprouting (coppicing)of Oregon white oak- Following felling in a clearcutting operation of Pacific Douglas-fir forest this Oregon white oak produced long or heterophyllous shoots known generally as stump sprouts. A live stump capable of producing new shoots is known as a stool. These had been browsed by Columbia black-tailed deer. Clearcutting typically results in resprouting of younger deciduous trees and seedlings of other species that receive more light allowing survival of Intolerant and Intermediate species. This clearcut was in the Coast Ranges of western Oregon.

Benton County, Oregon. June.

15. Growing around the stump- Stump of Douglas-fir was surrounded by grasses and forbs "released" following clearcutting. Native blue wildrye as well as introduced (and now naturalized) orchardgrass and tall fescue were at peak standing crop along the perimeter of a clearcut Douglas-fir forest. Recovery of post-harvest herbaceous vegetation was more rapid along edges of the clearcut where there was less soil disruption. More disturbance of soil and land surface, including prescribed fire for slash reduction, improved seedbed conditions for natural regeneration of Douglas-fir and facilitated tree replanting. Coast Range forest.

16. Blue wildrye (Elymus glaucus) on a Pacific Douglas-fir clearcut- First photograph showed a stand of blue wildrye along perimeter of a clearcut in the Oregon Coast Ranges that was "released" as result of tree harvest. Second photograph was of the spike inflorescence of blue wildrye.

Benton County, Oregon. June. Peak standing crop.

Location Note: other examples of blue wildrye presented in Range Types of North America were included in chapters, Southern and Central Rocky Mountain Forests and Miscellaneous Forest Types- II (Riparian Zone Forests- Arizona Uplands [Transition Zone]}.

17. Four-year-old clearcut of Pacific Douglas-fir- This clearcut in the Oregon Coast Ranges had been replanted to Pacific Douglas-fir that was well-established and "on its way". Prescribed burning for slash-reduction was part of site preparation. In the operations of site preparation and re-establishment of the tree crop in conjuction with ongoing secondary plant succession substantial amounts of browse were being produced. The major browse species on this clearcut was salal (Gaultheria shallon). Bigleaf maple and Oregon white oak also produced abundant browse.

18. Two views of a four-year-old clearcut of Pacific Douglas-fir in the Oregon Coast Ranges- Clearcutting followed by slash-reduction fire and replanting of Douglas-fir had this regenerating forest on its way to producing the next wood crop. Like wheat pasture prior to grain production this forest was producing an abundant crop of browse that was being utilized by Columbia black-tailed deer. Salal was the major browse species but others, including bigleaf maple and Oregon white oak, were making major contributions toward a secondary and complementary crop of wildlife. The tremendous crop of salal browse and the relatively high utilization of this browse was evident in the first slide.

These two slides provided a textbook example of two main benefits of clearcutting as a silvicultural method. Pacific Douglas-fir was being readily established and substantial quantities of browse were being produced for populations of range animals thereby enabling game species to increase also. Furthermore, the browsing (by black-tailed deer in this instance) benefitted the wood crop. Defoliation of non-crop plants like salal and nonbrowsing of Douglas-fir reduced competition for growth-requiring resources (light in particular) by young Douglas-fir thereby allowing these trees to grow faster and produce more stumpage per acre. This relationship was very noticable in the second slide.

Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir-Oregon white oak/salal association (salal not shown in Kagan et al., 2004).

19. Salal (Gaultheria shallon)- Detail of leaves and fruit of salal, a major browse plant in the Pacific Northwest. Salal is in the Ericaceae, heath or heather family, which is one of the major families of browse plants across much of the Western Range and especially of forest ranges.

Lincoln County, Oregon. June.

20. Tree farm model- Exterior view of a 42-year-old Pacific Douglas-fir plantation in the Oregon Coast Ranges. This stand (featured in these and the next two slides) and the next stand (shown in the two slides following ones just noted) of Pacific Douglas-fir were plantations. The Society of American Foresters defined plantation as "a stand composed primarily of trees established by planting or artificial seeding" but plantations may have tree or understorey species that have established by natural regeneration. Plantations may consist of one species (pure stand) or several species (mixed stand) and they may have uniform or diverse structure and age classes. Plantations may be grown at various rotations ranging from short (for pulp or biomass) to indefinite in case of some aesthetic values (Helms, 1998).

The term (and concept) of tree farm has both generic and specific meanings as recognized by the Society of American Foresters. In general tree farm refers to "a privately owned woodland in which the production of wood fiber is a primary management goal ..."; in a strict sense Tree Farm is a registered trademark applied to a tree farm that is certified by the American Tree Farm System (Helms, 1998). Examples of both this and the next Douglas-fir plantation fit both definitions. They were presented as examples of such.

Tree farm in either sense carries the connotation-- perhaps inherent in the definition-- that because tree farm forests are to a degree artificial and less natural vegetation they are each less of a forest in the plant community sense. Indeed it could be argued that given the agronomic (field crop)-like nature, structure, etc. of tree farms (and Tree Farms) they more closely approach populations than communities. This would be most true for monocultures such as those of Pacific Douglas-fir. Unlike most field crops that are literally single-species populations as a result of weed control, even the most intensively managed tree farm (Tree Farm) soon supports several to many other plant species, at least in the understorey. Weed trees may be controlled but typically shrubs and herbaceous species are present in substantial abundance.

Nonetheless, much of the discussion (debate) of the "New Forestry" (and of the more intensive, artificial model of industrial forestry) hinges on the presence of more species (both plant and animal) in and more varied structure of the forest as a community rather than as a "field of trees". This is of course more true with regard to public forests than to private forests (or tree farms).

The tree farm as a management and production model of industrial forestry does support the underlying "article of faith" of Forestry: trees can be grown and harvested as a wood crop on a sustainable basis.

Starker Forest, Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

21. Textbook example of the tree farm model forest- A 42-year-old Pacific Douglas-fir plantation in the Oregon Coast Ranges. Students should observe that even though this was a tree monoculture there was a pronounced and varied understorey, and an understory capable of being grazed. In other words four decades into a rotation there was still a grazable understorey in this tree farm forest. Even under rather intensive and artificial management (to a rather large degree) this was still forest range. Based on the definitions and classification of grazing lands given by Vallentine (2001, p. 11) this transitory range was medium-term grazing land.

The dominant grass in the understorey was the blue wildrye, but introduced cool-season grasses and wooly vetch were also common. Blackberry (Rubus spp.), bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) and sword fern were also present in abundance. In many local areas bracken fern occurred almost exclusively. Douglas-fir/bracken fern association of Kagan et al. (2004).

Starker Forest, Benton County, Oregon. June.

22. Vegetation of a Pacific Douglas-fir plantation- Interior of a 42-year-old Douglas-fir stand in Oregon's Coast Ranges managed by tree farm practices. Major species of the grazable understorey were given in the preceding caption. It should be noted that even with relatively high tree density there was a well-developed herbaceous understorey available for grazing.

23. Pacific Douglas-fir plantation in Oregon Coast Ranges- A 30-35-year-old Douglas-fir plantation stand with lower stocking or stand density than that of the plantation shown in the two immediately preceding slides. Interesting, however, with fewer trees per area and less crown cover (compare the two stands) this understorey was dominated by a single species, sword fern. This large forb is typically a major component of climax forest vegetation, but it also returns quickly following forest harvest and replanting even with clearcutting. There was less forage and browse in this plantation than in the one viewed previously that grew in relatively close proximately to the present plantation. There was a difference in forest site, especially with regards slope.

Starker Forest, Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir/hazelnut-snowberry/sword fern association of Kagan et al. (2004).

24. Pacific Douglas-fir plantation- Another view of a 30-35 year old Douglas-fir plantation in the Oregon Coast Ranges. This stand had relatively low stocking and an understorey that was largely herbaceous and dominated by sword fern. Bracken fern was also common. Wild ginger (Asarum caudatum) grew plentifully in local spots. The most common shrubs were salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) and California or beaked hazelnut (Corylus californica= C. cornuta var. californica).

25. Natural regeneration of Pacific Douglas-fir on cutover land- Cutover land simply refers to forest land that has had the trees growing on it "cut" (felled, logged, or whatever). Cutover or logged-over forest often often carries the conntation that the forest was not reforested by man or did not regenerate naturally but instead has remained nonforested. Forest logged by "cut-and-run" practices prior to the conservation ethic and advent of scientific management methods of modern forestry is an image often conjured.

The land in the foreground of these photographs had been used as cutover pasture for a number of years following logging. Following abandonment of the cutover land for pasture natural regeneration of Douglas-fir by seed from the uphill forests took place. The logged-over and heavily pastured forest was returning. This was an example of natural reforestation. At this stage of forest development there was a tremendous quantity of biomass produced by herbaceous plants, both native and naturalized (agronomic grasses and legumes), that was available as feed for grazing animals. Oregon Coast Ranges.

Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosuystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998). Kagan et al. (2004) did not provide an association for this seral stage.

26. Salvage-thinning operation in Pacific Douglas-fir in Oregon Coast Ranges- This 40-50 year-old stand of Douglas-fir was being selectively logged as a salvage cutting due to winter storm damage. An unusually cold and wet winter storm left snow and ice on trees that persisted for two weeks and was then followed by drenching rains. A high proportion of tree crowns were heavily damaged (some totally destroyed) so as to necessitate their removal (or let trees die and rot in the woods). Final result was a thinning operation as a timber stand improvement practice. The remaining trees will now grow faster under reduced competition.

Damages of this sort to the tree crop require an assessment by the forester to determine if partial harvest (selective harvest; uneven-age management) or complete harvest (clearcutting; even-age management) should be followed. In this instance the forester was following the former but with a "wait-and-see" attitude. The remaining standing trees were "not out of the woods yet".

Openings in the previously closed canopy of this stand of Pacific Douglas-fir will allow light to reach the forest floor and permit subsequent redevelopment of an understorey that will produce browse and forage for range animals.

Benton County, Oregon. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir/hazelnut-snowberry/sword fern association of Kagan et al. (2004).

27. Olympic Peninsula landscape of industrial forestry- The Olympic Peninsula has growing conditions so favorable for coniferous forests that it supports some of the highest-yield commercial forestry on Earth. The potential natural vegetation of the Olympic Peninsula is a complex of Sitka spruce (Picea sitkensis), western hemlock, western redcedar, and Pacific Douglas-fir rincluding the following Kuchler units: K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest), K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir forest), K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest), and K-14 (Western Spruce-Fir Forest). The first two units are the major (largest) ones.

It was emphasized in introduction of this section that most of the commercial forests in the Olympic Peninsula as in the Coast Ranges and Cascades have been managed primarily to produce lumber from Pacific Douglas-fir. Some industrial forests are mixtures of Douglas-fir and western hemlock. There are some where western hemlock is the crop tree (at least the major one) and even other commercial forests that are western redcedar-western hemlock mixtures. Mostly however it is Pacific Douglas-fir that is "king" on par with King Corn or King Cotton of other agricultural regions.

The landscape shown here was clearly an agricultural (denoting crop-- food-fiber-- production) one of managed forests and not of virgin vegetation. Clearcuts and forests managed by other silvilcultural methods dominatd this raven's-eye view of biologically productive and economically valuable forestland.

Some of the silvicultural systems (= regeneration methods) used in the Olymmpic Peninsula were presented below.

28. Seed tree method in Pacific Douglas-fir- On this Olympic Peninsula industrial forest the seed tree regenertion method was being used in a stand of Pacific or Coastal Douglas-fir. The seed tree method is one of the even-aged regeneration methods (along with clearcutting and shelterwood methods). Seed tree regeneration consist of "the cutting of all trees except for a small number of widely dispersed trees retained for seed production and to produce a new age class in fully exposed microenvironment ... seed trees are usually removed after regeneration is established" (Helms, 1998).

The scarified soil and removal of tree canopy will allow the rapid development of a seral forest community consisting of herbaceous plants along with seedlings of Douglas-fir (plus some other conifer species) and hardwood shrubs. This herbage and browse production will soon be a "boon" to range animals (wildlife and/or livestock depending on choice of the land owner or operator).

Slash, tree residue such as tops and branches remaining on the ground following harvest or natural downing, was piled for future burning to facilitate tree planting (probably mechanical). Slash piling also makes more space available for more trees on this productive forest site. In fact, surface burning will likely be part of site preparation if it poses no threat to seed trees. These practices result in soil scarifiction, "mechanical removal of competing vegetation or interfering debris, of disturbance of the soil surface" (Helms, 1998). Certain tree species, especially seral species like Douglas-fir, regenerate best, and in fact often require, on scarified soil. Unsightly as this disturbance may appear to the uninitiated it is important, if not essential, for establishment for the next generation (the next crop) of Douglas-fir.

These views of the seed tree regeneration method were soon after logging operations. Root sprouting of angiosperm trees and shrubs had already begun as had germination of pioneer herbaceous species. Development of a forest range plant community was underway. Secondary succession was taking place.

Washington State Trust Lands, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Pacific Douglas-fir was the crop, but this species was subclimax to this potential natural forest community so: Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

29. Regeneration of Pacific Douglas-fir forest by the seed tree method- "Fast forward" a few years (say, three to five) from the beginning of a rotation by the seed tree method as shown in the two preceding photographs and this is the state of forest vegetation that exist. Immediately down a state highway from the previous scene this view awaited the student of succession and forest range. A kaleidoscope of species-rich vegetation had recently arisen on a Douglas-fir forest in the Olympic Peninsula under seed tree regeneration.

Herbaceous species varied from bracken fern to native grasses like blue wildrye and various bromegrasses like Alaska brome (Bromus sitchensis), Pacific brome (B. pacificus) and Columbia brome(B. vulgaris) to introduced grasses such as reed canarygrass (Calamagrostis arundinacea), timothy (Phleum pratense), redtop (Agrostis rubra), and creeping foxtail (Alopecurus arundinaceus). Forbs included various composites such as goldenrod (Solidago sp) to the ever-present fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium).

Among woody plants, regeneration of Douglas-fir, the crop species, was obvious. Other tree (or shrub) species included red alder (Alnus rubra), bitter cherry (Prunus emarginata) and bigleaf maple. The most common shrubs overall were species of blackberry (Rubus spp.), but at local scale salal formed closed patches. California hazelnut was also plentiful in local spots.

Range feed was in abundance. Bring on the cows and the deer.

Washington State Trust Lands, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Pacific Douglas-fir as the crop species was subclimax such that potnetial natural vegetation was Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

30. Range vegetation on Douglas-fir forest under seed tree regeneration- Seral forest vegetation on the Olympic Peninsula that had developed under the seed tree regeneration method within a few years following logging provided a diverse selection of forage and browse species on this transitory range.

This was another form of the seed treem regeneration method. Rather than leaving widely spaced individual trees, groups of seed trees were left unharvested to furnish seed for reproduction of Pacific Douglas-fr. Sometimes such seed tree groups are left on fragile local spots that are more vulnerable to erosion, that protect springs or seeps, or that furnish cover for wildlife. As is the case for all seed trees those in these groups may be harvested after regeneration has taken place or, alternatively, some or all of them may be left unharvested to meet other goals or objectives. This latter modified regeneration method is one form of a two-aged method (stands have two age classes) known as seed tree with reserves (Helms, 1998).

Plant species present were those listed in the immediately preceding capiton. Fireweed was even more abundant here. Fireweed is one of the major pioneer plants quickly populating habitats created by disturbances like logging or, especially, fire (hence, fireweed). The conspicuous DWC (Damn White Composite) was the Eurasian weed known as oxeye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum= Leucanthemum vulgare).

Washington State Trust Lands, Clallam County, Washington. FRES No. 20(Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (PacificDouglas-fir). This crop tree species was subclimax in this biotic community so from perspective of climax or potential natural vegetation this was Western Hemlock Series in Oregon Coastal Conifer Forest regional formation or biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

31. Recovery of forest vegetation (and development of transitory forest range) under seed tree regeneration- Detail of a seral plant community that was developing on an Olympic Peninsula commercial Douglas-fir forest under seed tree regeneration. Reproduction of Pacific Douglas-fir was conspicuous as was availability of various herbaceous species for livestock and wildlife forage. The dominant herbaceous species was the pioneer forb, fireweed. Bracken fern is a ubiquous species hereabouts and this regenerating forest was no exception. Much of the herbage was the production from introduced, perennial, cool-season European grasses that have now naturalized to become permanent members of the regional vegetation. Such grass species included redtop, timothy, reed canarygrass, and creeping foxtail. Most of these seral herbs-- both native and naturalized-- do not persist in any appreciable quantities into the climax forest, but there will be no climax forest under management for Pacific Douglas-fir (itself a seral species by and large). Woody angiosperms that were visible in this slide were bigleaf maple and salal. This woody species will persist until later in the sere. Bigleaf maple is a climax species

This is transitory forest range and there will be species available for grazaing and browsing use for several decades into the future.

The young Douglas-fir in front of a Douglas-fir stump from the last generation exemplified the sustainability of forests as renewable natural resources under wise use and scientific management.

Washington State Trust Lands, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Pacific Douglas-fir as the crop species was subclimax in this potential natural community so from climax perspective this was Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

32. Regenertion of Pacific Douglas-fir on a transitory range under seed tree regeneration- Here in the Olympic Peninsula Pacific Douglas-fir is the "king crop". Main crops often function as secondary crops and provide important by-products. Just as small grains often furnish excellent small grains pasture in early parts of their life cycle so do lumber crop species like Dougls-fir provide pasture in early stages of succession, the life cycle of vegetation. Use of transitory natural grazingland furnished by Douglas-fir forests is compatable with-- in fact, complementary to-- production of wood products. Both lumber and range-- as feed for livestock and as feed, cover, and general habitat for wildlife-- are forest products.

This "photo-plot" of forest vegetation was farther along in the sere than those presented above. Douglas-fir were larger and more plentiful, but the same species of grasses, forbs, and shrubs were still available for grazing and browsing range animals. Bigleaf maple, along with red alder, bitter cherry, and California hazelnut, were larger and more common. Naturalized Eurasian grasses like redtop, timothy, and creeping foxtail were still abundant as was the opportunistic fireweed.

Washington State Trust Lands, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cewdar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). The crop of Pacific Douglas-fir was subclimax in the climax Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

33. Ground-level look at Pacific Douglas-fir vegetation under seed tree regeneration- Development of an Olympic Peninsula Douglas-fir forest a few grwoing seasons following logging and subsequent reproduction of the Douglas-fir lumber crop. Rotting slash (crop residue) from the last tree crop made contributions to the seedbed for the next crop. This debris (detritis, litter or organic residue from dead plant and animal tissue, in the ecosystem vernacular) provided organic matter and recycled minerals back to the soil, provided sites for seed germination and even sequestered carbon to help with the global warming (if indeed there is global warming).

The intensive management practices such as shorter rotations used in industrial forestry speed up the natural rate of certain ecosystem functions such as mineral cycling. Such practices also increase opportunities for establishment of some species like Douglas-fir and seral shrubs (red alder, bitter cherry) as well as imporving habitat for certain animal species like native and domestic ruminants. On the other hand, there is no place in the rotation of commercial Douglas-fir for old-growth or even later seral stage forest. The latter condition is to the detriment of other plant and animal spceies such as cavity nesting birds and mammals.

Important browse plants like bigleaf maple and salal were common in this vegetation along with bracken fern, salmonberry, and regenerated Douglas-fir. Native and naturalized grass species listed previously were common.

Washington State Trust Lands, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). On this site and in this area the Pacific Douglas-fir forest cover type was subclimax within climax Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

34. Embodiment of industrial forestry- This plantation (monoculture) of Pacific Douglas-fir was 17 years old and well on its way to producing the next lumber crop. On highly productive forest sites and under climate affable to fast-growing conifers like Douglas-fir forest "fields" like this optimize management effeciency with the goal of profit maximization. The benefit to society as wood consumers, taxpayers, and other stakeholders is a stable, steady supply of wood at affordable prices with protection of basic natural resources and minimum subsidy to forest owners: in a now-popular term, sustainable agriculture (or, more specifically, the concept of sustainable forestry or sustainable forest management..

Without going into the myriad meanings and nuances of the professional term this stand of Douglas-fir embodies the essence of sustained yield, "the yield that a forest can produce continuously at a given intensity of management" with the implication of achieving "...at the earliest practical time a balance between increment and cutting" (Helms, 1998). Really gung-ho students should study the concept of sustainable forest management in this same official reference (Helms, 1998). They can then decide for themselves how close or how far industrial forests like the one shown here comply with this emerging concept of conservation.

Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Industrial Pacific Douglas-fir was subclimax to the climax Western Hemlock Series in the Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

35. The forest products industry is a generative not an extractive industry- This 18-year-old plantation of Olympic Peninsula Pacific Douglas-fir (aided by the informative, if public relations-aimed, sign) provided a textbook illustration of the biological and social reality that forest and most of their related resources are in part or in total renewable (= flow) natural resources and not nonrenewable (= stock) natural resources. Forests can be wisely used to provide many products ("goods and services") to people as individuals and as a civilization. Industrial forests strive to optimize production of wood so as to maaximize profit for the firm over the long run.

Other forms of forest management and successional stages of forests provide other products and aminities to other people as well as to Mother Nature herself. Some of these other expressions of Forestry were presented below. For now industrial forestry and provision of native grazinglands under this forest management were considered. A combination of these categories of forest (from intensively managed industrial forests to preserved old-growth forests with minimal impact by man) provide an optimum of selections to meet human needs as made possible by Mother Nature and guided by Adam Smith's "invisible hand".

Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Commercial forests of Pacific Douglas-fir in this area were subclimax to the potential natural Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

36. Thinned plantation of Pacific Douglas-fir and western hemlock in the Olympic Peninsula- Commercial production of the native and seral Douglas-fir is perhaps the cause celebrae of managing vegetation and ecosystems at subclimax stage for purposes of higher yield and greater primary productivity. If the sere in this part of the Olympic Peninsula was allowed to progress through plant succession to the climax forest it would include western hemlock and western redcedar as climax dominants with the long-lived Douglas-fir from seral stages "hanging on" as a component of the potential natural vegetation.

It was repeatedly explained throughout this section that Douglas-fir was the "tree of choice" for biologically based economic reasons (ie. it produces an economic commodity, namely lumber, faster and more profitably than the other tree species). There are instances, however, when other tree species are also economically valuable and are therefore produced under industrial forest management, often along with Douglas-fir.

Western hemlock is one of these species, often because it is abundant enough with Pacific Douglas-fir at earlier stages in forest development so as to be another dominance type. The most important of these cover types is the Douglas-fir-Western Hemlock cover type (SAF 230) in which these two species are co-dominants with western redcedar as associate species. In other words, this forest cover type more closely approaches the climax vegetation.

The plantation shown here was a mixture of Pacific Douglas-fir and western hemlock with the former making up more of the stocking. This stand had been thinned recently and even with older and larger trees there was an abundant understorey that produced feed available to range animals. Most of this was browse of various kinds of huckleberry (Vaccinium spp). Bracken fern and salal appeared to be the other more abundant species (those furnishing more biomass in lower layers of the vegetation).

This stand of timber also provided an opportune time to underscore one of the major changes in forest management over the last several decades. Within the lifetime of extant foresters the rotation of Pacific Douglas-fir has been incrementally reduced from 80 years to 60 years and now down to 40 years. Some of this can be attributed to tree breeding and development of faster-growing selections. Some of it is undoubtedly due to sociopoliticoeconomic conditions. Recent fears-- founded or not-- of governmental intervention on private forestlands and in the lumber market to preclude logging of forest with larger trees has likely been one of many factors.

Anyone who has paid any attention to the size of logs on Kenworths headed to the mill has noticed the trend to smaller-diameter logs. Some of this undoubtedly reflects less logging of old-growth and late seral forests (for one reason there have been fewer such forests over course of the last few years). For other reasons, including the lumber market itself, harvest at younger ages and smaller sizes "made cents". Nonetheless, it would seem that the mills are butchering veal instead of letting trees grow into beef (ie. logging trucks are hauling poles not logs). Com'on boys, let 'im grow up!

With shorter rotations and smaller trees being harvested the state of transitory forest range, the length of time or portion of the rotation that there is forest herbage and/or browse available to range animals, will only become longer and a greater increment of the time needed to grow the wood crop. Looking at a forest with comparatively larger trees (such as those shown here) and that still has a range understorey suggested to this author that the transitory forest range may become permanent forest range except for brief periods following more frequent harvest.

Olympic National Forest, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 230 (Pacific Douglas-fir-Western Hemlock). Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formaion of Brown et al. (1998). Douglas-fir-western hemlock/salal association of Kagan et al. (2004).

Forests of the Olympic Peninsula other than Pacific Douglas-fir Types

Forests besides those dominated by (and managed to produce) Pacific Douglas-fir are also important in the Olympic Peninsula. Indeed, the Pacific Douglas-fir cover type (SAF 229) would not exist in this physiographic province except as seral stages following natural or anthropogenic (man-made) disturbances. The following section considered other forest range cover types that were closer to climax vegetation and also important biologically and economically, including as industrial forests.

37. Forests in the Olympic Mountains- The Olympic Mountains are some of the more prominent geologic features of the Olympic Peninsula landscape. The valleys, slopes, and peaks of the Olympic Mountains have three major forms of forest: 1) inland, lowland forests of western hemlock-western redcedar (with some Douglas-fir), 2) montane forests, the climax of which are dominated by western hemlock with Douglas-fir as an associate (and no western redcedar), and 3) subalpine forest dominated by subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana). A fourth major forest form of the Olympic Peninsula is the coastal temperate rainforest of Sitka spruce-western hemlock-bigleaf maple. The lowland and montane forests of the mountains coincide approximately with Kuchler unit 2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). The subalpine forest coincides with Kuchler unit 4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest) while the coastal temperate rainforest is Kuchler unit 1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest). Kuchler also recognized a Western Spruce-Fir Forest (K-14) on the Olympic Peninsula.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June.

38. Lowland western redcedar-dominated forest- This particular form of the general western redcedar-western hemlock lowland forest was a unique swampy site typified by the more mesic western redcedar with an understorey dominanted by the forb, western skunkcabbage (Lysichiton americanum) (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, p. 81). Conifer regeneration was primarily western redcedar with some western hemlock in the more open and drier microsites. This was the climax forest vegetation for this site.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem), but too general to be meaningful here. K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 228 (Western Redcedar). Western Redcedar Association of Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998); association designation added by author of this caption. Western red cedar/skunk cabbage association of Kagan et al. (2004).

39. Inside a western redcedar lowland forest- Around the base of two old-growth western redcedars was an understorey of several layers and consisting of both shrubs and herbaceous species (all forbs). California hazelnut was to left and front of tree trunks while Devil's club (Oplopanax horridus) was represented by a small plant in right foreground (compare to other photographs below). Common horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and bracken fern were obvious in foreground as were two individuals of western skunkcabbage (also shown in detail below). This old-growth forest is the climax vegetation on this swamp-like site.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir forest Ecosystem), but too general to be meaningful here. K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 228 (Western Redcedar). Western Redcedar Association of Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998); association added by writer of this photograph caption. Western red cedar/skunk cabbage association of Kagan et al. (2004).

40. Interior of a western redcedar phase or form of Olympic Peninsula lowland forest- Western hemlock and western redcedar are codominant on most of the interior lower climax forest zone of the Olympic Mountains, but on this swampy site western hemlock was an associate to the more mesic western redcedar. Overall or general understorey dominant was Devil's club. While Devil's club was the dominant shrub, western skunkcabbage was the dominant forb and though this forb had less cover and appeared to use fewer resources it was the defining or distinguishing understorey plant species. Climax vegetation.

An opening (gap) in the forest canopy seen in the background of this photograph supported red alder in shrub form and size.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem), but too general to be meaningful here. K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 228 (Western Redcedar). Western Redcedar Association of Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998); association added by author of this photograph caption. Western red cedar/devil's club association of Kagan et al. (2004).

41. Interior of a western redcedar form of the Olympic Mountains (interior) lowland climax forest- Layers of vegetation in climax forest on a narrow strip of a swamp-like site of lowland forest on the Olympic Peninsula. There were two prominent age classes of western redcedar: 1) mature trees (old-growth) and 2) pole-size trees that formed a lower tree layer. Most conifer regeneration was western redcedar. Below the lower tree layer was a shrub layer dominated by Devil's club. An herbaceous layer consisted of western skunkcabbage, common horsetail, bracken and other ferns as well as miscellaneous forest forbs. Climax forest vegetation.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem), but too general to be meaningful here. K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 228 (Western Redcedar). Western Redcedar Association of Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998); association designation added by author of this caption. Western red cedar/devil's club association of Kagan et al. (2004).

42.Devil's club (Oplopanax horridus)- General understorey dominant and dominant shrub of a western redcedar climax lowland forest on Olympic Peninsula. The first photograph was of the inflorescence of Devil's club. The second photograaph showed the cluster of immature cluster fruit at shoot apex of Devil 's club. In spite of its "put-the-fear-of-God-in your-heart" intimidating name and threatening spines on shoot and leaf petioles Devil's club is much less apt to put scratches on human skin than other species like blackberry.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June.

43. Western or yellow skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanum)- This member of the arum or philodendron family has some of the largest leaves of any plant in the Pacific Northwest. It is one of the most "photogenic" of all the western forest and range forbs.The individual flowers on this large forb are small and are on a spike atop a large flsehy stalk all of which is a spadix. .Subtending (below) and partly surrounding the spadix is a bract or modified leaf designated as a spathe.The yellow-colored, conspicuous spathe of skunk cabbage appears early in the spring (sometimes before regular leaves) and gives this species its other common name of swamp latern. The spathe is shed soon after blooming of the small flowers and hence was not present in the photographs presented here.

The second slide showed the spadix with immature fruit and the veination of the large leaves that were as beautiful as many flowers.The name skunk cabbage comes from the distinctive strong odor (supposedly remeniscent of a polecat) given off during flowering. This probably attracts insect pollinators.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June.

44.Climax western hemlock forest- Two views of old-growth western hemlock forest with regeneration of both this species and some of the associate species, western redcedar. These two conifers are rated as Very Tolerant (Wenger, 1984, p. 3) and are typically co-dominants, but in this location they had segregated within a short distance of each other with western redcedar on the wet site just shown and western hemlock on a drier upslope site where it produced this fine stand.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. RES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem), but too general to be meaningful here. K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 224 (Western Hemlock). Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998). Western hemlock-(red cedar)/devil's club/ sword fern association of Kagan et al. (2004).

45. A tree-hugger's worst nightmare (so two shots were included for good measure)- Fresh (still bleeding) clearcut of second-growth western redcedar-western hemlock (Douglas-fir was minor component) forest in Olympic Peninsula. The aftermath was piles of slash plus remaining slash and other litter on soil surface (and even a few cull poles or small logs for firewood). This site has such high potential for timber production that all available space will be used to grow trees. Burning of slash will be part of site preparation.

Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem), but too general to be meaningful here. K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 227 (Western Redcedar-Western Hemlock). Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

46.Scene of destruction (but also of regeneration)- Another view of the fresh clearcut of western redcedar-western hemlock second-growth forest in the Olympic Peninsula. At edge of a small clearcut with deep slash of dead trees among stumps of recently living wood there was new life emerging to continue the successional cycle of the forest. Sprouts of salal, red alder, and bigleaf maple were already appearing to provide browse for range animals (at least until burning as part of site preparation set them back so they could grow the second time). Some of the rot-resistant redcedar stumps were from the prior cutting.

This small clearcut will naturally regenerate to the climax western redcedar and western hemlock as shown in the next four slides.

47. Regeneration of climax conifers on forest range of a clearcut in Olympic Peninsula- Climax (and Very Tolerant) western redcedar and western hemlock were established on this former clearcut. This was more evident in the second slide of these two. Simultaneously (actually somewhat before) there was a tremendous growth of numerous hardwood (angiosperm) shrub and tree species.This development was presented in the first of the two slide. Red alder, bittercherry, salal, bigleaf maple, red huckleberry, a species of currant (Ribes sp), and various Rubus species were among the hardwood species (and that were availabld as browse). There was even a naturalized foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) for a touch of color in the brush.

It was noteworthy (and a most interesting lesson in secondary succession) that even with the apparent severe disturbance of clearcutting the climax dominant conifers and bigleaf maple (Very Tolerant species) came back in early seral stages. Seral species like red alder and fireweed were, of course, also present in early stages of sere development, but interestingly the successional vegetation of a wesetern redcedar-western hemlock forest was a mixture of seral (including pioneer) and climax plant species.

This phenomenon coupled with the Very Wet precipitation zone ( up to 160 inches, 16 feet, of liquid moisture) made for fast recovery. This is one timber-growing son of a gun!

Clallam County, Washington, June. FRES 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem), but too general to be meaningful here. K-2 (Cedar-Hemlock-Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 227 (Western Redcedar-Western Hemlock). Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998).

48. Second-growth western redcedar and western hemlock (climax) forest in Olympic Peninsula- On the other side of a highway from the regenerating clearcut shown in the two immediately slides was this more advanced regenerating forest on a another former clearcut.

The first photogarph was a general exterior view of the second-growth, clearcut forest showing reproduction of both western redcedar and western hemlock. There was a small clearing in foreground and many understorey species like those listed for the clearcut across the road were present here also. The second, and closer-in, photograph showed more detail of the second-growth forest. Look at the redcedar stump. Trees of the climax western redcedar and western hemlock that ranged in size from poles to small logs had established before the stump from the previous logging had rotted. This was a function of both the slow rate of decay of western redcedar wood and the rapid rates of forest recovery and timber growth.One timber-growing son of a gun.

Look again at the redcedar stump. Notice all of the seedlings and resprouts of vine maple (Acer circinatum) and bigleaf maple that were available for browsing range animals was well as for replacaement of this climax hardwood species. This forest range cover type is an amazingly resilent ecosystem. Water-- and lots of it-- with a mild, moderating temperature regimen and fertile soil are a lumberman's dream come true.

49. Industrial forest of western hemlock in Olympic Peninsula- This commercial stand of mostly western hemlock was being weeded and thinned (just like hoeing corn or cotton except the crop plants are bigger). Western redcedar and the smaller and/or more crowded western hemlock were being harvested. Redcedar was being sawed into blocks

Finally the lumber of the two climax trees (especially western hemlock) was becoming appreciated so that these two native dominants were no longer viewed strictly as weed trees. Pacific Douglas-fir had lost some-- though not much-- of its monopoly in industrial forestry in the Pacific Northwest. Ths served as a textbook example of how economics and other social factors shape forest policy and how a free market responds to humn needs. Students were reminded again of the common root of Ecology and Economics.

Your range professor once again directed your attention to the browsable understorey. Even with climax trees of this size and stocking there were various shrub species (especially Vaccinium spp.) that formed a well-developed woody layer of vegetation available to range animals. There was also a partial herbaceous layer formed mostly of ferns. Thinning and soil disturbance would be expected to make a more favorable environment for other herbaceous species as well as the estblished shrubs.

Olympic Peninsula Temperate Rainforest

One of the most productive forest on Earth (whether measured as primary productivity, biomass, or board feet) is the a Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest (SAF 225). The Society of American Foresters (Eyre, 1980) interpreted this cover type as subclimax in which true firs (Abies spp.) are climax with western hemlock, but Franklin and Dyrness (1973, p. 64-67) concluded that the typically subclimax Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) appears to be climax in a few of the river valleys (on river terraces) in the extremely high rainfall belts of the coastal side of the Olympic Mountains (rain shadow areas). This conclusion was consistent with the recognition by Kuchler (1964, 1966) of the potential natural vegetation he identified as Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest (K-1) and designation/description by Garrison et al. (1977) of FRES Ecosystem 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem).

Traditionally (perhaps sensationally in the popular nature press) this restricted but amazing, as well as complex and botanically diverse, forest community has been dubbed the "Olympic rain forest" often with the specific designation as a "temperate rain forest". Franklin and Dyrness (1973, p. 64-67) made a brief but specific review of the literature and conclusions of workers with this unique vegetation. In what remains the "bible" of natural vegetation in Oregon and Washington Franklin and Dyrness (1973, p. 67) concluded that the "Olympic rain forest" was "simply a vriant of the Picea sitchensis Zone" limited primarily to coastal river valleys and likely the ecological product of interactions of various factors including location on river terraces, soils, and feeding by Roosevelt elk (Cervis canadensis var. roosevelti= C. elaphus subsp. roosevelti). This variant interpretation was adopted in the Sitka Spruce forest cover type (SAF 223) description by the Society of American Foresters (Eyre, 1980, 102).

Perhaps the best known and most famous of the "Olympic rain forest" areas in forest ecology circles (certainly the best publicized) is that of the Hoh River Valley. Your intrepid author/photographer was there and left ya'll with the memorable images shown below. All sensationalizing aside, the concept of "rain forest" was accepted and adopted herein by the current author based on vegetation physignomy and structure (including the numerous layers of vegetation), species diversity, photogenic features (including epiphyte-festooned trees, massive size of boles, trees growing on nurse logs), plus features cited by formal students of this vegetation.

The term "temperate rain forest" seemed to be a useful pedagogic handle. It was adopted here to convey the general notion of a productive, biologically diverse, and environmentally unique ecosysstem that had value as native grazing land. There did not seem to be any substantive conflict between the concept of "rain forest" and that of "a variant" of the Sitka spruce zone. It is a rain forest variant.

50.Olympic Peninsula temperate rain forest- Interior of a climax Sitka spruce-western hemlock-bigleaf maple coastal forest in the Hoh River Valley. Various layers of vegetation were obvious with a complex understorey that included an herbaceous ground layer of forbs the dominants of which were fern species, especially sword fern (Polystichum munitum). There were both lower and upper shrub layers. The larger shrub or small tree in center was a bigleaf maple. The dominant shrub was red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium) , but salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) and other Rubus species were common also. In addition to ferns there were other major forb species including redwood or Oregon sorrel (Oxalis oregana). Visible in background were saplings and poles of the climax dominants, Sitka spruce and western hemlock.

Hoh River Valley, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest). SAF 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). Sitka Spruce-Douglas Fir Series in Sitka Coastal Conifer Forest biotic commuity or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

51. Olympic Peninsula rain forest with young growth of co-dominant conifers- Co-dominant climax conifers of coastal Olympic Peninsula forest. Half trunk at extreme right margin and center trunk with moss were Sitka spruce; pole and log-size trunk at left were western hemlock. Regeneration of both species was evident in background. Most common shrub was red huckleberry. Ground cover species was redwood or Oregon sorrel.

Note kind and quantity of downed wood forming detritis and rapidly cycling nutrients between biomass and soil.

52. Vegetation of Olympic Peninsula temperate rain forest- Interior of climax Sitka spruce-western hemlock-bigleaf maple Olympic Peninsula coastal forest. In this "photoplot" structure, especially pronounced layering, of forest vegetation was shown to give some representation of the biological diversity and productivity of this forest range ecosystem.

Big leaves at far left were on Devil's club (Oplopanax horridus). Large leaves in center midground were of bigleaf maple. Sword fern and Oregon sorrel were both common forbs and each could be viewed as a dominant of an herbaceous layer: Oregon sorrel of the ground or surface herb layer and sword fern of an upper herb layer. Largest bole (left midground) was Sitka spruce. Two side-by-side boles in center were western hemlock.

53. "Ya.mean this is range!"- "You're mighty well told" (George Washington Wishbone of Rawhide fame). Yes gentleviewers this is prime habitat for the Roosevelt elk, usually interpreted as the largest subspecies of this stately cervid. It was mentioned in introduction of this section on the Olympic Peninsula rain forest that some features of this unique vegetation are likely the result of browsing by Roosevlt elk. Franklyn and Dyrness (1973, ps. 65-67) based their conclusions on elk exclosures and selective grazing of western hemlock seedlings by elk. Selective grazing by large herds of Roosevelt elk was one factor (among several others including overall climate) that shifted the competitive relationship between the two co-dominant conifers enough to allow Sitka spruce reproduction such that this usually subclimax conifer was interpreted as a climax species in this unique community (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, p. 67).

In this sample of vegetation Sitka spruce were represented by the two large trunks at left and right margins of photograph and by the largest tree in center. Western hemlock "representatives" were the trunk to right of largest tree (Sitka srruce) and the down log and the tree immediately to the right of this hemlock with a pronounced butt swell. Note also butt swell of largest Sitka spruce. Blazes (spots of chipped bark) on the center Sitka spruce were made by pileated woodpecker or wood hen (Dryocopus pileatus) that thrives on the abundance of wood-dwelling insects that in turn thrive on plentiful wood (living and dead) of this biomass-producing marvel of an ecosystem.

Oregon sorrel was the dominant forb and herbaceous species locally. Major shrubs were various species of huckleberry with red huckleberry most common. Devil's club was also plentiful locally. There was regeneration o both co-dominant climax conifers as well as the climax bigleaf maple.

Hoh River Valley, Clallam County, Washington. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest). SAF 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). Sitka Spruce-Douglas Fir Series in Sitka Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

54.Reproducing in its own shade- Saplings of Sitka spruce and western hemlock had established beneath a mature and rather large Sitka spruce. Both of these co-dominant climax conifers (on terraces of certain coastal river valleys in the Olympic Peninsula) were rated as Very Tolerant by the Society of American Foresters standards (Wenger, 1984, p. 3). Typically Sitka Spruce is somewhat less so and generally regenerates best in local microhabitats created by disturbances that form openings (gaps) in the crown cover of climax forests. Observant students will have noticed the nearly rotted stump around which these saplings (again, of both climax dominants) were growing. Species of stump could not be identified in the field.

The understorey was mostly bracken fern with some scattered patches of Oregon or redwood sorrel.

55. Giant Sitka spruce in small forest opening- In the canopy of a Sitka spruce-western hemlock coastal climax forest a gap was created by some phenomenon (likely a disturbance such as windthrow) that created a microhabitat favorable to growth of this immense Sitka spruce. Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps.65, 67) and Eyre (1980, p. 103) specified that individuals of Sitka spruce which attain immense size typically grew in openings or in stands of open canopies.

The dominant understorey herbaceous species was bracken fern which of course provides little or no forage and, in fact, is toxic (thaiminase is the poisonous principle). The dominant shrub was red huckleberry that was well-represented by the shrub adjacent (on left side) of the trunk of the spruce. Bigleaf maple was also present (visible as green leaves in a mid-layer to left of Sitka spruce bole at top of photograph). There was regeneration (roughly equal) of both Sitka spruce and western hemlock.

56. Nurse log- The nurse log phenomenon has been discussed in various works, as for example by Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 60, 64, 65, 66, 297). Individuals of western hemlock appear to be especially adapted to germinate and often establish on rotting logs. There were at least three saplings of western hemlock that were thriving on this ancient log that was the rotting remains of a once-massive Sitka spruce. This was an example of the fact that western hemlock under most conditions of co-existence Sitka spruce is subclimax to the climax western hemlock. As discussed above the well-watered river valleys of the coastal Olympic Peninsula are an exception wwith both conifers climax and often co-cominant.

Hemlocks and spruces that germninated and developed to maturity on nurse logs usually retain a basal trunk and partial aboveground roots that bespeak their organic cradle. An example of this in Sitka spruce was shown below under coverage of Sitka Spruce cover type (SAF 223) in northern California.

Oregon or redwood sorrel was also growing on the spruce "carcass" (or forest duff atop it). Sword fern was growing around the "dead soldier". A small red huckleberry had established at right end of nurse log.

57. Red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)- Red huckleberry or bilberry was typically the dominant shrub species in the Sitka spruce-western hemlock coastal forest of the Olympic Peninsula. This species is widely distributed along the Pacific Coast also being dominant in other forests such as coast redwood.

58. Little groves of bigleaf maple- Most maples (Acer spp) are generally tolerant species.and bigleaf maple is no exception having been rated as Tolerant by the Society of American Foresters (Wenger, 1984, p.4). In fact, bigleaf maple has been interpreted generally as an associate of the co-dominant Sitka spruce and western hemlock under certain conditions. One of the most photogenic and best- publicized examples of this has been the Olympic Peninsula temperate rainforest where "moss-festooned" bigleaf maples have often been featured more than even the massive Sitka spruce.(Perhaps such epiphyte-drapped trees put viewers in mind of human-like or ghostly figures lurking in the foggy forest of giant trees. Such botanically adorned bigleaf maples are the Pacific Northwest equivalent of the Desert Southwest giant saguaro that was featured elsewhere in this publication.)

Anyway, ecologically or poetically motivated, bigleaf maples were included here in an effort to provide more nearly complete coverage of this unique forest range cover type. Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 66-67) cited unpublished work suggesting that these groves of bigleaf maple grew in the Sitka spruce-western hemlock forests on "local sites of shallow, sotny soil" on the second terrace of major rivers like the Hoh River.

Franklin and Dyrness (1973, p. 65-66) listed several common moss species that formed typical layers as well as listing epiphytic cryptogams. One of the most useful guides (complete with excellent photographs) to mosses (true mosses), clubmosses, liverworts, and lichens of the northern Pacific Coast was Pojar and MacKinnon (1994). Two of the more common and larger species of ephphytic mosses in the Olympic Peninsula rain forest were cat-tail moss (Isothecium myosuroides) and coiled-leaf moss (Hypnum circinale).

From perspective of native grazing land the shrub-size and resprouts-- and not mature, stately trees-- of bigleaf maple are the important range plants as the former furnish browse. Mature trees provide cover, but this seemed a mute point in this vegetation (and it would be cover as shelter from the sun and not the drenching rain which penetrates almost anything not man-made).

Hoh River Valley, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest) . SAF 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). Bigleaf Maple Association of Sitka Spruce-Douglas Fir Series in Sitka Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Association added by author of this caption.

59. Grove of red alder (Alnus rubra)- Within the Olympic Peninsula temperate rain forest (or, perhaps more precisely, immediately adjacent to it on the flood plain of major rivers) are single-tree species stands of red alder. Viewed in the context of primary succession the array of various forest communities of certain coastal or near-coastal river valleys that are a progression from flood plain through first terrace and risers (steep inter-terrace slopes) to second terrace, as described by Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps, 66-67), is a toposequence rather than a chronosequence (Barbour et al., 1999, p. 274-276). Over temporal scale of geologic time however this could be viewed as chronosequential succession in the Clementsian monoclimax model.

No matter which way (or another way) this development of forest vegetation was visualized, red alder stands are native (though interpreted as seral) vegetation that is locally important as forest range. It was also important to understanding and obtaining a more comprehensive sense of the forests of the Olympic Peninsula. For these reasons the red alder forest cover type (SAF 221) was included at this point. It also served to visually or conceptually unite the Olympic Peninsula forests with those farther south in the Coast Ranges as presented immediately below the section on Olympic Peninsula forests.

The "bible" of Washington and Oregon native vegetation (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, ps. 61-62, 66) also described red alder communities of the Picea sitchensis Zone as did the collection of forest cover types published by Society of American Foresters (Eyre, 1980, p. 100). These references described either single-species stands or tree and shrub associates. Neither source considered an herbaceous component or layer. In stark contrast the red alder stand shown here that was growing on the flood plain of the Hoh River consisted of no other woody plant except scattered salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) on perimeter of the grove. There was a continuous and dense herbaceous understorey. There were numerous young sprouts of alder that were forming a second woody layer (two-layered red alder stand), but there were really no woody associates, the salmon berry being too limited.

Role-- if any-- of Roosevelt elk in affecting this vegetation was unknown.

The herbaceous layer consisted almost exclusively of grasses and grasslike plants, the obvious dominant being the alien and naturalized Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis). There were carices (Carex sp.) and some individuals of bromegrass (Bromus sp.) , but these were all in pre-bloom stage. Forbs were incidental: no ferns or Oregon sorrel.

The "botanical expressions" (species compositions and corresponding structures) of this Olympic Peninsula red alder community and the red alder community growing in the Coast Range of northern California within the coast redwood region shown below (immediately after the section on Olympic Penisnsula forests) should be compared. Both of these red alder communities are seral stages of different climax forests and, while they differ in understorey and associate species, they are much more similar than are the climax stages.

Hoh River Valley, Clallam County, Washington. June. Seral stage of FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock forest). SAF 221 (Red Alder). No biotic community classification unit was provided by Brown et al. (1998).

60. Red alder- Bark and leaves of Alnus rubra growing on flood plain of Hoh River immediately adjacent to bigleaf maple groves and Sitka spruce-western hemlock forests. Clallam County, Washington. June.

Climax Pacific Douglas-fir Forest

The generally subclimax successional status of Pacific Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) was explained above. Pacific Douglas-fir is a component species of climax forests composed of such tolerant (Very Tolerant and Tolerant) species as western hemlock, western redcedar, Sitka spruce, and Port Orford-cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana). In fact, Pacific Douglas-fir (Intermediate in tolerance) is often the dominant species, and almost always an associate species, in several forest dominance (= cover) types. Douglas fir has this successional role because individual trees are so long-lived (up to 500-800 years of age) that they persist into the climax even though the species itself is seral (generally regarded as subclimax).

There is at least one climax forest community dominated by Pacific Douglas-fir in which Douglas-fir is both dominant and climax. That is the Pacific Douglas-fir-oceanspray community (Pseudotsuga menziesii/Holodiscus discolor association) that is the driest climax community (association) that develops along a moisture gradient in the Tsuga heterophylla Zone (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, ps. 70-88 passim). Sometimes this climax association is expanded to include salal as a third species so as to be Pseudotsuga menziesii/Holodiscus discolor/Gaultheria shallon (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, Table 10, p. 86).

The climax Tsuga heterophylla Zone (including the western hemlock-dominated associations) encompasses much of the Coast Ranges and Cascades, other than the High Cascades, (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, ps. 6, 45). Most the forest range types within the western hemlock zone were included in the section, Sierra, Cascades, and Coast Ranges (Forests and Woodlands), for convenient grouping and to aid students in visualizing spatial arrangement of forest types. The Pseudtotsuga menziesii/Holodiscus discolor association rightfully fits equally well in the array of western hemlock associations or here with Olympic Peninsula forests. Indeed the western hemlock associations would logically fit as well with the Olympic Peninsula as with the section devoted to Cascades and Coast Ranges. To minimize redundancy and still present a sample of range forest types by region and/or physiographic province this particular organization was used.

61. Not old-growth but climax forest- This second-growth forest of small log- and pole-size Pacific Douglas-fir with a shrub understorey of ocean spray (at full bloom) is climax vegetation. It is one of the few forest types in which Pacific Douglas-fir is the climax dominant (ie. Pacific Douglas-fir-dominated forest is the potential natural vegetation). In terms of plant succession, Douglas-fir will not be replaced but instead will continue to regenerate "forever" This is the final vegetation on this forest sere. It is the termination of plant community development and it will be more-or-less steady state or in dynamic equilibrium with prevailing given climate, mature soil, etc. This is probably best understood as an edaphic climax rather than the climatic (= regional) climax.

The other major understorey species (locally co-dominent with oceanspray) was the shrub, trailing or spreading snowberry (Symphoricarpos mollis). Dull Oregon grape, Oregon hollygrape, or longleaf hollygrape (Berberis nervosa= Mahonia nervosa= Odostemon nervosus) was uniformly sparse throughout. An herb layer was largely absent although there were scattered plants of sword fern and the ubiquitous bracken fern. For discussion of the shrubs in relation to range plants students were referred to the timeless Range Plant Handbook (Forest Service, 1940) as follows: longleaf hollygrape (B99-B102), trailing snowberry (B151, leaf 2), and oceanspray (interpreted as also as Sericotheca discolor or Schizonotus discolor, B-147).

Jefferson County, Washington, June. Olympic Peninsula province. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-11 (Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic communityor regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

62. Pacific Douglas-fir oceanspray climax forest- Two stands of second-growth forest vegetation in Olympic Peninsula that were of the Pseudotsuga menziesii/Holodiscus discolor association. Even the climax species, bigleaf maple, had established (far-right foreground of first stand). Though far from old-growth stands these two communities were climax forest in species composition and vegetation structure. In fact, it was deemed noteworthy and instructive that these relatively younthful stands which were dominated by young trees of a climax species (for this forest site and forest cover type) already had the species composition of the potential natural vegetation.

By contrast, and as displayed under the section of Sierra, Cascades, and Coast Ranges Forests, there are old-growth forests dominated by ancient and immense trees of the subclimax Pacific Douglas-fir (subclimax for specific forest sites and forest cover types) that do not have the structure of climax or potential natural vegetation. Students should not confuse climax forest, "an ecological community that represents the culminating stage of a natural forest succession for its locality, ie., for its environment" (Helms, 1998), with virgin forest, "a mature or overmature forest growth essentially uninfluenced by human activity" (Munns, 1950) or "an original forest, usually containing large trees, that has not been significantly disturbed or influenced by human activity" (Helms. 1998).

These second-growth were neither virgin nor old-growth forests, but they were climax forests.

In the understories of these two stands trailing or spreading snowberry was co-dominant with oceanspray. In fact, in local microsites (eg. foreground of second stand) snowberry was the aspect and local dominant whereas oceanspray was the overall dominant pecies. Where oceanspray is not the local dominant shrub it remains the potential understorey dominant for this climax association. Large individuals of red huckleberry grew sporadically throughout both stands. There were no herbaceous layers in this two forest communities. These were examples of browse forest range.

Jefferson County, Washington. June. FRES No. 20 (Douglas-fir Forest Ecosystem). K-11 (Douglas-fir Forest). SAF 229 (Pacific Douglas-fir). Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

Timberline or Subalpine Forest

One of the three general or major forms of forests in the Olympic Peninsula is the subalpine forest or tree communities at what has traditionally been designated as timberline (= timber-line or timber line). Until more recent refinements in the definition, timberline was defined as "the uppermost extension of forest growth in mountainous regions where further extension is prevented because of environmental influences" (Munns, 1950). That traditional meaning is still applied by many, even most, who speak of the upper limit beyond which trees cannot grow in vegetation that is otherwise a forest community. Other ( more contemporary) authors distinguished between timberline and tree line. For example, the Society of American Foresters (Ford-Robertson, 1971) and Helms (1998) lumped timberline under tree line where the latter was defined as "a loose term for" Ford-Robetson, (1971) "the limit beyond which trees cannot or do not occur, commonly at high elevation or geographical latidtude but sometimes also because of aridity, flooding, or air pollution" with the note that "a distinction may be drawn between tree line and timberline , the latter being roughly the limit of timber rather than isolated tress"

Tree line versus timberline becomes problematic and almost a "hair-splitting" (make that "wood-splitting") exercise when individual plants of the same tree species grow side-by-side with some having krumholtz shrub-form while their "next-trunk neighbor" is of "normal" tree shape and size. Timberline is the older, more traditional (and, poetic) word so it was the term used here.

Timberline was also the term used by Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps 248, 272-284 passim) in Natural Vegetation of Oregon and Washington, the "vegetation bible" that was used in the present publication as the definitive reference and as sacrosanct. Readers were referred to this landmark work for synecological coverage of subalpine forest in the Olympic Mountains.

The example of timberline or subalpine forest, for which the term woodland might be a more accurate description, presented below was from Hurricane Ridge of Olympic National Park. This tree species-dominated vegetation joined (was immediately adjacent to) the subalpine parkland named Big Meadow. The vegetation of Big Meadow was treated herein under Grasslands, Meadow. In local areas saplings and krumholtz-form shrubs/trees had invaded the subalpine meadow. There were local areas where the "battle" between meadow and subalpine forest was on-going. Readers may benefit by studying the treatment of Olympic Mountains (Olympic Peninsula) subalpine mountain meadows in the section, Grasslands: Meadow. At least a more complete view (and understanding) of the vegetational mosaic can be seen (and grasped) by study of that section in conjuction with this one.

Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 281-284) described the ecotonal dynamics of the timberline forest-subalpine parkland edge and woody invasion of subalpine meadows.

63. Timberline in the Olympics- Subalpine forest (woodland) of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) with some mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) at edge of subalpine mountain meadow dominated by showy sedge (Carex spectabilis). Most of the subalpine fir and mountain hemlockwere of tree form, but some were krumholtz (elfin-wood) and, strictly spedaking, shrubs. The krumholtz individuals along with fir and hemlock seedlings and saplings made up a second woody layer. An herbaceous layer comprised of subalpine meadow species was prominent. The herbaceous layer was mostly grasses and grasslike plants (showy sedge was dominant) with conspicuously fewer forbs and forb species than in the adjoining subalpine meadow.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 23 (Fir-Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest). Variant of SAF 206 (Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir). The former SAF (1954 forest cover type descriptions) of Mountain Hemlock-Subalpine Fir was more descriptive (more inclusive of chataracteristic species) of this forest vegetation. Mountain Hemlock Series in Cascade-Sierran Subalpine Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998) who did not present a "Subalpine Fir Series".

64. Trees' last toe-hold- Literally the "last stand" of subalpine fir-dominated forest at edge of subalpine meadow. The associate species was mountain hemlock. Note regeneration of subalpine fir among slowly decaying downed timber. Sward of the subalpine parkland vegetation adjacent to the subalpine fir was dominated by showy sedge. (The subalpine meadow, including presentation of numerous meadow plant species, was included under Grasslands, Meadows herein.)

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 23 (Fir-Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest). Variant of SAF 206 (Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir). The former SAF (1954 forest cover type descriptions) were more descriptive (more inclusive of characteristic species) of this forest vegetation. Mountain Hemlock Series in Cascade-Sierran Subalpine Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998) who did not present a "Subalpine Fir Series".

65. Battered but alive- An interior view of the subalpine fir-dominated timberline forest displayed a magnificant old subalpine fir, a survivor of a long, hard life at forest edge. On the aptly named Hurricane Ridge, winds had long ago twisted off the top of this grand specimen, but its cambium layer was still viable and this ancient ancestor was.Readers are free to drqw their own lessons in life from examples.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 23 (Fir-Srpuce Forest Ecosystem). K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest). Variant of SAF 206 (Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir). The former SAF (1954 forest cover type descriptions) of Mountain Hemlock-Subalpine Fir was more descriptive (more inclusive of characteristic species) of this forest vegetation. Mountain Hemlock Series in Cascade-Sierran Subalpine Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998) who did not present a "Subalpine Fir Series".

66.On the front line of a subalpine invasion- A subalpine mountain meadow dominated by showy sedge and other gramnioid species was being invaded by reproduction of subalpine fir from the adjacent timberline forest. Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 281-284) discussed this phenomenon, including citation of first sources and studies.

This tension zone between two major range plant communities illustrated the dynamics of vegetation. Vegetation is never static, at least not for long.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 23 (Fir-Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest). Variant of SAF 206 (Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir). The former SAF (1954 forest cover type descriptions) of Mountain Hemlock-Subalpine Fir was more descriptive (inclusive of characteristic species) of this forest vegetation. Mountain Hemlock Series in Cascade-Sierran Subalpine Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998) who did not present a "Subalpine Fir Series".

67. Aboreal advance guard- Seedlings and small saplings produced by the timberline forest of subalpine fir (dominant species) and mountain hemlock (associate species), were in process of invading a subalpine mountain meadow (= parkland). In good battle field tactics the climatic climax conifers (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, p. 282) held the "high ground" and wind and gravity served as agents of dispersal allowing barbaric hoards of coniferous progeny to threaten survival of the herbaceous folk of the meadow.

Students were referred once more to the treatment of this phenomenon by Franklin and Dyrness (1973, p. 281-284).

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 23 (Fir-Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest). Variant of SAF 206 (Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir). The former SAF (1954) forest cover type descriptions) of Mountain Hemlock-Subalpine Fir was more descriptive (more inclusive of characteristic species) of this forest vegetation. Mountain Hemlock Series in Cascade-Sierran Subalpine Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998) who did not present a "Subalpine Fir Series".

68.Last forest outpost- Subalpine or timberline forest of mountain hemlock (dominant species) and subalpine fir (associate species) on a south slope just below a subalpine meadow. Reproduction of both conifer species, but in this "photo-quadrant" mountain hemlock was more common and ranked subalpine fir in dominance. Note the characteristic bark and basal trunk shape in foremost tree at left.

Although subalpine fir was overall the more common of these two major conifers and had substantially greater crown cover, mountain hemlock did dominate local sites (microsites) often at somewhat lower elevations. The distinction between SAF 205 versus SAF 206 (some variant of these) was subjective. Certainly there was no Englemann spruce in the forest vegetation shown from this location in the Olympic Peninsula which argues against the Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir forest cover type (SAF 206). On the other hand, subalpine fir was overwhelming dominant to mountain hemlock except locally which beggars the legitimacy of the the Mountain Hemlock forest cover type (SAF 205). The forest range community for this caption justified SAF 205 designation locally. The former (1954) forest cover type of Mountain Hemlock-Subalpine Fir were more inclusive of the major, defining conifer species.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June. FRES No. 23 (Fir-Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest). Mountain Hemlock Series in Cascade-Sierran Subalpine Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

69. Timberline ecotone (or a tale of two communities)- Two distince range types were self-evident in this example of Olympic Mountains vegetation. Ridge line vegetation was timberline forest of subalpine fir (the dominant) and mountain hemlock (the associate). There was both tree and shrub (= krumholtz) form of both species thereby producing two distinct woody layers. This timberline forest also had a well-developed herbaceous layer of grasselike plants (Carex and Juncus spp.) with showy sedge as the dominant herb. The herbaceous understorey of this subalpine forest (or woodland) community was shown in the first three slides of this coverage of the Olympic Mountains subalpine forest. (Details of the subalpine parkland, including various species, was covered under Grasslands, Meadow.)

Foreground vegetation was a xeric form of subalpine mountain meadow (also known as parkland). Vegetation in the immediate foreground was primarily forbs while vegetation in the midground was more typical (more mesic) of the general showy sedge subalpine meadow.

Also in the foreground were two krumholtz subalpine fir that were more like woody "rugs" than trees. These elfinwood shrub mats were growing on a terrace-like rise with deeper soil than in adjacent microsites and "edged out" forbs and xeric graminoids. Farther up the hill side subalpine fir were taller and had a minature tree form.

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington. June.Foreground vegetation: FRES No. 37 (Mountain Meadows Grassland Ecosystem), K-45 (Alpine Meadows and Barrens), SRM 216 (Montane Meadows). Background vegetation: FRES No. 23 (Fir-Spruce Forest Ecosystem). K-4 (Fir-Hemlock Forest). Variant of SAF 206 (Englemann Spruce-Subalpine Fir).

70. Krumholtz form of subalpine fir- On a subalpine mountain meadow subalpine fir had become established and survived as the shrub (elfinwood) form. Franklin and Dyrness (1973, p.273 ) cited earlier investigators who proposed that the krumholtz or horizonal forms and the tree or erect (vertical) forms of some of these subalpine species are ecotypes (ecological races) and not solely stunted or weather-pruned morphs (ie. there is a geneotypic a well as a phenotypic basis to krumholtz shrubs and mats of subalpine conifers).

Olympic National Park, Clallam County, Washington.

End of Olympic Peninsula Forests

71. Red Alder (Alnus rubra) Grove- Red alder is almost always a seral community to the Pacific Coast Forest Complex except on frequently flooded alluvial sites. Kuchler did not include it as potential natural vegetation and the Society of American Foresters viewed it as "always seral" (Eyre, 1980, p. 100). Red alder was included as a forest cover type by SAF. Red alder often occurs as nearly pure stands as seen here and it comes in after forest disturbances like logging, fire flood, etc. Red alder is a nitrogen- fixing species and obviously improves the sere for climax forest.

Due to less complete canopy cover and openness of land for herb and shrub understories, red alder stage probably provides more feed for livestock and wildlife than the climax redwood, sitka spruce, and Douglas fir forests. In this scene the understory dominant is salmon berry (Rubus spectabilis), but red elderberrry (Sambucus racemosa), sword fern (Polystichum munitum), bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) and cow parsnip (Heracleum lanatum) are common.

This red alder community should be compared with the one presented above in the section on Olympic Peninsula forests. Students should note similarities and differences in regards to species composition and stand structure. An important successional "fact of life" was that the two seral stage communities (red alder) were more similar to each other than were the climax forests (Sitka spruce-western hemlock and coast redwood) similar to each other.

Redwood State & National Parks, Humboldt County, California. June. Seral stage of FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem); K-6 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem). SAF 221 (Red Alder); Red Alder Series of California Native Plant Society.

Scrub Forests of the Pacific Coast Region

Use of the term "scrub" to describe forest could be confusing because "scrub" in the context of vegetation or plant communities at the type scale (eg. cover or dominance types) is a synonym for shrub. In this usage scrub is synonymous with shrubland (eg. aridlands scrub means desert, coastal scrub means coastal shrubland). "Scrub", howver, can also be properly used to refer to "scrub" trees much like scrub cattle or runt pigs. In cases where stunted woody plants are trees (ie. of minimim tree height as, say, 15 feet and with a single bole versus multiple boles) is correct to designate them as "scrub trees". The Society of American Foresters provided this definition of scrub: "small or stunted trees or shrubs, generally of unmerchantable species-- note where such trees are sufficiently numerous, the vegetation is termed a scrub forest" (Helms, 1998).

In such usage (and again, this is proper usage) scrub refers to individual plants (trees in this instance) that are stunted, depauperate, or dwarfish (ie. "runt" trees) rather than to vegetation or plant communities. In other words, "scrub forest" is forest vegetation comprised of individual scrub trees. Krumholtz or elfinwood is probably the most familar form of scrub or stunted trees, but other causes or contributing factors vary from infertile soil to ecotypic variation (ie. natural selections of undersized plants as adaptation to harsh habitats).

Several forms of scrub forest (forest cover types that dominated by scrub trees) are potential natural vegetation along the Pacific Coast and/or inland for comparatively short distances. Examples of these were presented below.

72. Bishop Pine (Pinus muricata) Forest- This short-lived (80-150 years) pine comprises a variable forest cover type (see ps. 332-333 of Barbour and Major, 1995). It commonly forms a consociation with bishop pine being the sole dominant tree as seen here. A dominant shrub in the understory is often— as seen here —California huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum). The widely distributed bracken fern is present as is California rosebay (Rhodendron macrophyllum) and scattered plants of salal (Gaultheria shallon). MacKerricher State Park, Mendocino County, California. June. Bishop pine is one of six Pinus taxa known collectively as the closed-cone pines. Along with 11 species of cypress (Cupressus spp.) the closed-cone pines comprise the closed-cone pine and cypress forests of various forms or sub-units (Chapter 9 in Barbour and Major, 1995). FRES No. 21 (Ponderosa Pine Forest Ecosystem)— which is far too general to have any meaning —K- No. 9 (Pine-Cypress Forest) and Kuchler (1977) California Map (Natural Vegetation of California) No. 9 (Coastal Cypress and Pine Forest). No SAF or SRM; California Native Plant Society Bishop Pine Series. Closed-cone Pine series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998).

73. Bishop Pine-Pygmy Cypress Forest- This is one of several forms or unique communities of the closed-cone pines and cypress which comprise isolated and unique forests developing on infertile sites and under maritime climatic and, given the feature of serotinous cones, fire regimes. They are not commercial forest and have most value as wildlife habitat, watershed, recreation, and scientific "oddities". Bishop pine on left; pygmy or Mendocino cypress (Cupressus pygmaea= C. goveniana spp. pygmaea) on right. Understory is largely California or Pacific wax myrtle (Myrica californica). Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June. FRES No. 21 (Ponderosa Pine Forest Ecosystem), meaningless, K- 9 (Pine Cypress or Coastal Cypress and Pine Forest). No SAF; California Native Plant Society Bishop Pine and Pygmy Cypress (Joint Series). No SAF or SRM. Close-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998).

74. Interior of Bishop Pine Forest- Understory is dominated by bracken fern. Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June.

75. Pygmy Forest- Probably the most unique and best-studied form or phase of the closed-cone pine and cypress forest is that known as the pygmy forest. This is thought to be the final steady-state or climax vegetation along a step-like series of terraces of different, mostly progressively older, ages (thus a series of climaxes reflecting past environmental factors such as climate; a clisere in the sweeping Clementsian scheme). It occurs on the impoverished Blacklock soil, a podzol that overlays an iron hardpan. The land functions as a bog in which the soil does not dry out resulting in extreme infertility and acidity (pH of less than 3 or 4) coupled with low levels of oxygen. In other words this is an edaphic climax.

Dominant pygmy cypress with understory of Labrador tea (Ledum glandulosum), salal, Fort Bragg or pygmy manzanita (Arctostaphylos nummularia), and stunted California rose bay. Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June. No meaningful FRES; K-9, see especially Kuchler (1977) in Natural Vegetation of California (Coastal Cypress and Closed-Cone Pine Forest Ecosystem). No SAF or SRM. Closed-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998).

76. Pygmy Forest- Composite community with the three dominant conifers— pygmy cypress, bishop pine, and Bolander pine (Pinus contorta ssp. bolanderi) —in the stunted tree layer and salal, California huckleberry, Ft. Bragg manzanita, Labrator tea, California rose bay as the shrub layer. Beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) occurs frequently as an herbaceous species. Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June. K-9 (Coastal Cypress and Closed-Cone Pine Forest Ecosystem), see especially Kuchler (1977), Natural Vegetation of California. No SAF or SRM. Closed-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998).

77. Interior of pygmy forest- Pygmy cypress (left) and Bolander pine (right) as dominants with shrub understory of pygmy manzanita, salal, California huckleberry, and Labrador tea. The fruticose lichen Usnea rubicunda is common on branches of pygmy cypress. Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June. No meaningful FRES; K-9 (Coastal Cypress and Closed-Cone Pine Forest Ecosystem), see especially Kuchler (1977) in Natural Vegetation of California. No SAF or SRM. Closed-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998).

78. Flowers of California rosebay (Rhodendron macrophyllum)- Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California.

79. Labrador tea (Ledum glandulosum)- Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June.

80. Usnea rubicunda- This is a fruticose lichen found on branches of pygmy cypress which is often interpreted as the major of the three dominant conifers of the pygmy cypress and closed-cone forest. Lichens are given species designation like other organisms, but each lichen species is technically two species one of which is an alga and the other a fungus growing in mutualism so as to behave as one organism, one species. The lichen is so characteristic of this forest that some workers have classified this vegetation as the pygmy cupress-Usnea subfloridana (probably the same U. rubicunda) association. Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June.

81. Sand dune scrub forest- A scrub forest dominated by Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and shore or beach pine (Pinus contorta var. contorta) developed on wet-stable sand dunes along the northern Oregon coast. This was climax or later seral vegetation for this site (Franklin and Dyrness, 1973, p. 295, Figure 211). High sand dunes had formed a headlands-like landform that supported diverse range plant communities within short distances of each other. An example of this species diverstiy was shown and described below to provide an overall perspective, but first the general scrub forest vegetation was presented.

The largest--though stunted-- tree (left midground) in this range vegetation was Sitka spruce and the shorter three trees to right of spruce were shore or coast pine. The rightmost shore pine bore a bumper crop of cones. The shrub understorey was dominated by salal (Gaultheria shallon) with evergreen or shot huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) as the associate shrub species. Bracken fern (Pteridium aquifolium) was the dominant herbaceous, but the easily missed yet tall-growing Sitka brome (Bromus sitchensis) was locally abundant.

Trees (or, if preferred, arboreus shrubs) were a form of krumholtz or elfinwood due to a combination of factors, primarily pruning and shaping by high ocean breezes, abrading sand, and salt spray (more-or-less constant wind coming off the ocean and bearing abrasive sand and dessicating salt). Charles Darwin's "Survival of the fittest" was likely operative so that all of these plant species were adapted ecotypes of smaller size, shorter stature, drought tolerant, etc.

Yaqunia Bay State Park, Lincoln County, Oregon. June. No meaningful FRES number or description (too small or fine for larger mapping units or scale of FRES). Kuchler units for continental map and on Natural Vegetation of California (Kuchler, 1977) was K-9 (Coastal Cypress and Closed-Cone Pine Forest Ecosystem). No SAF; no SRM. Closed-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998). Sitka spruce-shore pine/salal-evergreen huckleberry association of Kagan et al. (2004).

82. Sitka spruce-shore pine scrub forest- Scrub vegetation with arboreous (or arborescent might be more accurate), shrub, and herb layers developed on high, wet-stable sand dunes along the Pacific Ocean in northern Oregon. This landscape was the outermost edge of the Coast Ranges with a headlands-like topography. This was climax or, at least, late seral vegetation having a species-rich composition and structure. Co-dominant conifer species were the shrub form of shore pine (immediate and center foreground; also, right margin of background) and Sitka spruce (diagonal line of grey-green shrubs in midground).

Grass, particularily that in large spaces dispersed among woody plants, was mostly the introduced and naturalized European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria). The native, perennial Sitka brome grew sporadically near the spruce and pine. European beachgrass formed large single-species herbaceous stands along the foredunes. Examples of this localized beachgrass grassland (if grassland is appropriate in a biome-based meaning; it was an apt description) were presented under the section, California Grasslands.

The conifers in this "photo-plot" were clearly shrub-size and, in case of shore pine, shrub-shape such as to qualify this vegetation as shrubland or, most precisely speaking, coastal scrub. In other photographs immediately below and in the immediately preceding photograph, Sitka spruce and shore pine were of tree-size and arboreous form. As such, this diverse range vegetation was interpreted as and included with Pacific coastal scrub forest for consistency based on conifer species and species composition of the plant community.

For consistency in treatment of vegetation from perspective of physiognomy and size-shape of some shore pine, the California coastal scrub treated under the California Chaparral section was referenced to this portion of Pacific Northwest Forests. This was the slide to use if and when the scrub shore pine-Sitka spruce community was interpreted or considered from standpoint of shrubland.

It was explained in the preceding caption that the krumholtz size and shape of these species, especially the conifers, was probably a combination of adaptive ecotypic variation and the prunning action sand- and salt-laden steady ocean breezes. Droughty nature of this habitat was also a probable factor in producing this scrub forest.

General descriptions of the sand dune scrub forest were provided by Franklin and Dyrness (1973, ps. 291-294 passim) and by workers in Barbour and Major (1995, ps. 242-244, 338-340).

Yaquina Bay State Park, Lindoln County, Oregon. June. No FRES number or description as not mapped at that fine a scale. Kuchler unit on continental map and on Natural Vegetation of California (Kuchler, 1977) was K-9 (Coastal Cypress and Closed-Cone Pine Forests or Forest Ecosystem). No SAF; no SRM. Closed-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998). Sitka spruce-shore pine/salal-evergreen hucklebrry association of Kagan et al. (2004).

83. Sand dune woody range community- Botanically diverse woody range vegetation had developed on stable sand dunes immediately inland from a Pacific Ocean beach. There was a pronounced soil water gradient and toposequence of plant succession from dry to moist microhabitats from foreground to background. The more mesic soil moisture of the higher (deeper sand) dunes in background reflected the postclimax nature of deep sand.

This was a scrub forest with the canopy (crown) layer made up of stunted or dwarfish (krumholtz) Sitka spruce and shore or beach pine (background; skyline vegetation). A second or lower shrub layer consisted largely of salal and evergreen or shot huckleberry with smaller, shorter shore pine interspersed in it (foreground; note shrub form of shore pine growing in salal in center foreground). Incidental shrubs in this lower woody layer included Hooker's willow (Salix hookeriana), California or Pacific rosebay (Rhodendron macrophyllum), California wax-myrtle (Myrica californica), and (in more exposed intra-spaces) bearberry manzanita (Arctostaphylos uva- ursi). A specimen of Hooker's willow was at far left foreground.

A low herbaceous layer formed beneath deep shade of conifers that consisted almost exclusively of wild ginger (Asarum caudatum). European beachgrass grew immediately adjacent to drip line of shrubs.

Yaquina Bay State Park, Lincoln County, Oregon. June. No FRES unit because not mapped at this small scale. Kuchler unit on continental (North America) map and Natural Vegetation of California (Kuchler, 1977) was K-9 (Coastal Cypress and Closed-Cone Pine Forests or Forest Ecosystem). No SAF or SRM. Closed-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998). Sitka spruce-shore pine/salal-evergreen huckleberry association of Kagan et al. (2004).

84. Inside a Sitka spruce-shore pine scrub forest- Shore pine was the local arborescent (or, if more appropriate or accurate, arboreous) dominant (background; skyline vegetation). The second or lower woody layer shown in this photograph consisted of Pacific or California rosebay and salal. In shade of shore pine there was a low herbaceous layer of wild ginger. No herbaceous species grew under or through shrubs like salal, evergreen huckleberry, or rosebay.

Layers of vegetation grew beneath one another in some local areas while in other local spots (as was more the case shown in this slide) the layers grew more in a toposequence or horizonal (vs. vertical) zonation inland from the Pacific beach. There was both horizonal and vertical layering of this range vegetation.

Yaquina Bay State Park, Lincoln County, Oregon. June. No FRES unit as too small for those larger units. Kuchler unit for North America map and Natural Vegetation of California (Kuchler, 1977) was K-9 (Coastal Cypress and Closed-Cone Pine Forests or Forest Ecosystem). No SAF or SRM. Closed-cone Pine Series in Relict Conifer Forest of Brown et al. (1998). Sitka spruce-shore pine/salal-evergreen huckleberry association of Kagan et al. (2004).

85. Salal (Gaultheria shallon)- Salal is one of the more widespread ericaceous alon the Pacific coast and throughout much of the Coast Ranges. It is readily browsed by deer, but is not particularily strong for sheep aqnd goats. Good references for salal included Dayton (1931, ps. 128, 129), Forest Service (1940, p. B83), and Sampson and Jespersen (1963, p. 126).

Yaquina Bay State Park, Lincoln County, Oregon. June.

86. Evergreen or shot huckleberry or bilberry (Vaccinium ovatum)-. Vaccinium species make up some of the most common, widespread, and valuable browse plants along the Pacific coast as well as in the Sierra Nevada, Cascade, and Rocky Mountain Ranges. These are ericaceous shrubs (members of the Ericaceae, the heath or heather family).

Yaquina Bay State Park, Lincoln County, Oregon. June.

Coast Redwood Forests

87. Redwood Forest- Physiogonomy or botanical architecture of climax old-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)- Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forest. The layering of vegetation visible in this "outside" shot indicates the relatively diverse, even complex, structure of this plant community given dominance by the small number of dominant tree species (usually one or two). Four or five layers of shrubs and trees are distinguishable. The lowest layer is riparian vegetation of willows and red alder along Van Duzen River. The second "story" is made up mostly of tanbark or tan oak (Lithocarppus densiflorus) seen in full-flower as the conspicuous yellowish plants. The highest level is made up of mature ("over-ripe") redwoods and the layer below that is of mature Douglas fir and younger coast redwoods. Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No.27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series of Brown et al. (1998).

88. Old-growth versus second (etc.)-growth forests- Outer community comparison of the old-growth coast redwood-Douglas-fir forest in the previous slide (on right) to a second-growth forest (mostly coast redwood) that revegetated a clearcut. Note the gullies above Van Duzen River persisting as scars of accelerated erosion caused by either an improperly planned/conducted logging operation and/or logging too close to the watercourse (ie. failure to leave an unlogged buffer along the stream).

Clearcutting is a proper method— often the best method— of redwood and Douglas-fir harvest if the site is not too steep, too near a stream, too large, etc.

Even this less than perfectly conducted clearcut is an example that forests are renewable natural resources and that forest products industries can (must) be managed as regenerative and not extractive industries. In the spirit of stewardship and professionalism of Forestry forests are to be harvested and not mined.

Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California, June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series of Brown et al. (1998).

Units of the California Coast Redwood Forest

Noss (2000, p. 46) recognized different forms of coast redwood forest as to geographic location and attendant differences in forest sites among and within natural forest units that he described as sections within which were subsections. Examples of coast redwood forest vegetation presented below were from different subsections. All were in the Northern Section (Noss, 2000, p. 46). Forest vegetation in Del Norte County, California (including Jedidah Smith State Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park) was is the Northern Franciscan subsection. Coast redwood forest at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California was in Wiregrass Ridge subsection. Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California.was in Coastal Franciscan subsection.

Coast redwood forest vegetation in each of these subsections differed visibly from the others. Botanical diversity was probably greatest at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park while plant species diversity and richness was apparaently less in Humboldt Redwoods State Park where redwoods had greatest density (eg. various groves) and largest individual trees. Burls on trunks of redwoods appeared to be more numerous and larger in the Coastal Franciscan subsection (eg. Humboldt Redwoods State Park).

89. Layers in a coast redwood forest- Numerous species formed several layers (the number was arbitrary) of vegetation in a diverse coast redwood forest. There are notable and remarkable differences among various coast redwood-dominated forest communities even within the relatively small region supporting the coast redwood range type. In the forest scene shown here tan oak (foliage covering over half of the upper left-hand portion of the photograph) was the major associate tree species. Coast redwood cohorts ranged from ancient and giant trees to pole-size to sapling to even a very few seedlings. Large specimens of red huckleberry (Vaccinatum parvifolium) made up most of a second woody layer far beneath redwood crown canopy. California or blue huckleberry (V. ovatum) was also present but in the lower herb-short shrub layer. The major herbaceous species were various species of ferns with the dominant of this group being western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) followed by bracken fern.

Prairie Creek Redwoods Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

90. "Jungle"-like coast redwood forest- A local stand of virgin coast redwood with enough sunlight reaching ground surface to have as well-developed lower layers of vegetation. These lower layers varied locally in number, structure, and species composition. Overall major species included red huckleberry (dominant of the highest shrub layer), California or blue huckleberry, thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), salmonberry (R. spectabilis), sword fern, and hill or coast man-root or, less commonly, wild cucumber (Echinocystis oregana= Marah oreganus) These species were present in the well-lite area of foreground or at outer edge of mature trees in midground. In combination, these various species and their respective life/growth forms made for "rough-going" to ground-bound vertebrates, especially bipeds. Such botanical diversity was much greater in local natural clearings and other openings in the redwood canopy were more-or-less full light could reach the ground level.

91. Climax species composition- This "photographic quadrant" was not sterotypical calendar picture or one of those coffee table book pictures of "nothing but big trees everywhere we looked". Instead this presented an example of the often species-rich composition of coast redwood forest. From a rise in the land surface this view focused down into a draw with western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), two trees at right (the Epson Perfection scanner "shaved off" over half the western hemlock along right margin) co-dominant with coast redwood that was represented by the two largest trees in center midground. The large shrub in left corner of foreground was California hazelnut (Corylus rostrata var. californica= C. cornuta var. californica). Other shrub such as those in right corner foreground included such well-represented species as red huckleberry, California or blue huckleberry, salmonberry, and thimbleberry. Sword fern was the dominant herbaceous spceies.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

92. Fog belt coast redwood- Coast redwood comprised all of the tree stocking in this stand, including the hollow snag at right margin. Sword fern was the dominant herbaceous species. Shrubs in this local assemblage consisted mostly of California or blue huckleberry and dwarf maple (Acer glabrum). Any local grouping of plant species is arbitrary and by itself would give a distorted--at least biased--view of the overall forest range vegetation. Finding, evaluationg, and presenting an adequate number of such assemblages permitted a more accurate general view of forest features including botanical composition, (age classes as well as plant species and groupings of those species), plant community development and structure, physiogonomy, forest site characteristics, etc.

93. Another example of uneven-age form of coast redwood with various ages classes of redwood along with western hemlock (eg. tree at far left margin) was provided by this old-growth stand in the fog belt of the Coast Range.Western hemlock has a tolerance rating of Very Tolerant whereas Sitka spruce and redwood have been rated as Tolerant (Wenger, 1984, p. 3). Western hemlock is a climax component of established coast redwood forests. Examples of the more tolerant western hemlock germinating and growing on organic matter of rotten (nurse) logs were presented below.

94. Hemlock hiding in the redwoods- A western hemlock of respectible size (mature tree, and probably still actively growing) in the middle of an old-growth forest dominated by coast redwood. This tree provided "live evidence" of the phenomena of tolerance and plant succession. There was abundant reproduction of coast redwood (as shown) here by sexual (natural reseeding) and asexual (sprouting from trunks and roots). Locally dominant shrub species was California rosebay (also written rose-bay) or California rhodendron (Rhodendron macrophyllum), but thimbleberry and salmonberry abounded as well.

95. Interior of old-growth coastal redwood forest- Deep inside a stand of the kind of magnificant redwood monarchs for which diehard conservationists devoted their lives to preserving so that future generations could experience the same marvel. Here thousand year-old specimens of coast redwood grew with scattered western hemlock. There was abundant redwood regeneration of various age classes. The taller of non-conifer trees was red huckleberry and California hazlenut. Thimbleberry was "everywhere". Ferns, especially sword fern, formed an herbaceous layer that was as much as a yard in depth (height). The layering of vegetation seen as multi-canopies of plant life--and not the picnic ground-like appearance emphasizing size of redwoods used on post cards--was typical of the natural vegetation of this forest range type.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

96. Some young Sitka spruce in an old-growth coast redwood forest- In the summer fog of the Coast Range individuals of Sitka spruce were making themselves to home in the famed Redwood Belt. Sitka spruce were represented here by the largest tree at left corner and the tree with profuse trunk branches in center midground). Other trunks were those of coast redwood. Both Sitka spruce and redwood have been rated as Tolerant (Wenger, 1984, p. 3) and these two conifers along with the Very Tolerant western hemlock (Wenger, 1984, p. 3) comprise most of the stocking of this climax fog belt forest with redwood as dominant and Sitka spruce and esstern hemlock as associate species.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

97. Uneven-age virgin stand- Coast redwood forests, especially local stands, are often--perhaps characterically--composed of trees of the same or very similar ages. When forest ecologists have "worked backward" using biological concepts such as plant succession to reconstruct development of such forest vegetation it became apparent that the redwood trees were of the same cohort (or, at most, just a few cohorts) resulting in even-age stands or, in some cases, entire forests of even-age trees. Coast redwood is to a large extent a disturbance species with regeneration benefitting from--maybe even dependent on--natural disturbances including fire, flood, windthrow, even disease and insect outrbreaks or human-caused disturbances such as timber harvest and attendant soil scarification or fire (this latter including both prescreption and untended wild fires).

Coast redwood can under certain conditions develop into uneven-age stands or forests even under natural environments. Such a stand was profiled here. In this "photo-plot" coast redwood included mature trees of immense size and "ripe old age" along trees of mid-maturity (call them "half-grown"), saplings and larger seedlings. All but seedlings were visible in this photograph.

Also present in this sample of old-growth coast redwood forest were various "beneath-the-crown-canopy" species ranging from smaller trees down through large shrubs, small shrubs, and herbaceous species includuing California hazlenut, red hucklebrry, California huckleberry, thimbleberry, salmonberry, and sword fern. Grasses and grasslike plants were as rare as teeth in the birds that perched in the redwoods.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

98. Parent and progeny (at least the age of parent and offspring)- An ancient and huge coast redwood along side a younger--though still large even by redwoodstandards--sexually produced (genotype) coast redwood. This illustrated the age-based structure and physiogonomy of an old-growth coast redwood forest of uneven-age composition and architecture. Understorey vegetation was dominated locally by sword fern and California huckleberry. Trunk of the younger, smaller tree bore in interesting scar from what had obviously been at one time a large, deep wound. What tales trees could tell if they could talk.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

99. Forests of legend- Dense old-growth coast redwood forests with immense trees show why this was the stuff of legend (tall tales could scarcely exaggerate the massiveness and majesty of trees and grandeur of forest). Observe that the trees even though mature are of various ages (one on far right is burnt stump; a sapling to its left) and the fire-scared bark. Coast redwood is to a degree a fire type. Actually the species benefits from many natural disturbances such as flood and fire. Large forbs and shrubs within depth of field of this photograph include sword fern , bracken fern, thimbleberry, California wax myrtle, and California or blue huckleberry. Herb layer limited to ferns.

100. Redwood cathedral- On what have probably been countless occasions numerous people have made references to the coast redwoods as "catherals", "God's cathedrals", "cathedral-like", etc. Perhaps this stems from Johh Muir who frequently referred to the gauruantian trees of giant seqoia (Sequoiadendron gigantea) in such superlatives. A more explicit or less vague usage is that of "cathedral trees" as applied to specimens like the group of coast redwood trunks shown above. In such instances there was apparently (or presumedly) a previous coast redwood growing on the same spot that was top-killed (aboveground portions of the tree died due to injury from forest fire, windthrow, etc.) and that then sprouted from epicormic buds at the base of trunk or stump. Over course of centuries several of these redwood sprouts from the cluster or clump of the previous trunk or stump survived so that ultimately these resprout shoots grew into massive "trees" so close together as to resemble the columns of a temple or cathedral. This are, simply put, tree sprouts writ old and large (more like ancient and gigantic). More of the unique feature (among conifers) of sprouting ability in coast redwood was shown below when treating coast redwood groves in the Coastal Franciscan subsection of the coast redwoods regional forest.

Each of the individual trunks in this gigantic clump of sprouts is a clone of the original genetic coast redwood (each resprout or stump shoot has the genotype of the seedling). If any or all of these resprouts that have matured into fullgrown coast redwoods were to be killed any resprouts of such would remain clones or ramets of the original genetic individual, the genet. The ancient and behemoth trunks are products of asexual reproduction with only the original genotype of the seedling being the progeny of sexual reproduction. In this manner, coast redwood has its own version of "resurrection" and, among living things on Earth, approaches immortality or "life everlasting". An individual of this species is a "live forever plant".

White circle with a dot at right side of tree cluster (in the middle at base of the "gunsight" space between tree trunks was the authors hat. Size of these hugh trees boggles the mind and dwarfs the lid covering it.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

101. Fire was the sculptur- Fire is a major abiotic factor in the coast redwood forest. Note epicormic, ready-to-sprout burls on scar shown in first photograph.These two examples of fire scars on coast redwood represented typical healed wounds that remainded as stark evidence of past "flames in the redwood forest". The lower scar had developed into a goosepen form of injury due to heat and phsical loss of wood. Some such scars are of such great size in bigger trees as to provide cover for large animals, including temporary housing for humans and even their livestock. (More was discussed about redwood burls below).

Plants by scar in second photograph included big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) and various species of ferns (foremost fronds were of the dominant western sword fern.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

102. Coast redwood and California rosebay- This is the favorite sort of shot of the redwood forest by calendar publishers and the Sierra Club. It catches the dominant tree's characteristic bark and the most showy shrub of the understory. The picture is misleading to the "uninitiated" (polite language for "ignorant greenhorn") and teaches an ecological lesson usually missed by touchy-feely greens idyllically dreaming of perfect forests. Although rose bay is a climax shrub of the redwood forest it grows most vigorously when it receives lots of direct light. As a shrub in the dense climax coastal forest it survives as a scrawny, thinly branched, sparsely blooming plant. It is also a member of earlier seral stages on go-back land, cut-over forests, etc. It is on these habitats that rose bay blooms most profusely. What the shot seen here does not show is that on this southern slope the redwood is more dead than alive, most of its top having blown off in a windstorm. The good crop of Rhodendron blossoms is due to the resulting "windfall" of sunlight. Solid redwood canopy and abundant rose bay flowers are mutually exclusive. This is a response characteristic of many forest understory species.

103. Rose-bay and fire- Closer view of a fire-charred snag of coast redwood and the common occurrence or presence of rosebay associated with (typically close proximity to) such a habitat marker. The natural opening afforded by loss of tree canopy permitted adequate light for a flourishing specimen of this member of the Ericaceae that is a common understorey shrub in the coast redwood cobver type.

Snags are one stage of the ecological life cycle of a tree that often provide essential features of a forest, at least for some organisms. Snags serve as habitat, espcially cover, for cavity nesting birds and mammals. They furnish shelter for vulnerable seedlings and young plants of certain species such as the rosebay growing beside this snag. This is one form of the nurse plant syndrome, a form of commensalism. Makes no difference to the dead redwood, but that snag may make all the difference that counts for the Pacific rhodendron. Snags often serve as lightening rods which in turn become smoldering sources of fire brands leading to forest fires. In the hey day of Smokey Bear "total fire suppression" policy and practice such snags were viewed as a hazard to "life of the forest" so that these burnt-out ole sentinels were felled by the forester. Now woodswise foresters realize that such snags and most fires that they contribute to can be essential to maintenance of coastal redwood which is partly a fire type (fire-dependent dominance type).

What happens when the snag falls as the next stage in the life cycle of a coast redwood? Next slide ...

104. "Deadwood"- A fallen redwood that crashed either as a snag (as shown above) or as a live treeunder certain conditions (say with water saturated soil coupled with high winds) became a nurse log to two young trees of western hemlock (pole-size), western sword fern and bracken fern, and California or blue huckleberry. Fallen, rotten tree trunks retain lots of water that was absorbed as rain, snowmelt, or even fog drip. This "blotter effect" serves as one reservoir of forest water and in combination with organic matter and released, recycled mineral nutrients functions as a nursery for certain plants, including western hemlock and Sitka spruce, that do not require bare, exposedmineralsoil to the extent as redwood seedlings. Likewise ferns and certain of the huckleberry species "rejoice" in the deep organic matter of redwood needles and decaying wood.In this way even a decaying coast redwood continues to contribute to the welfare of the forest to which it for centuries had been a living member. Even in death a coast redwood tree provides vital functions to the forest: first as snag then as rotten log.

"Deadwood" is a cliched term sometimes leveled at senior tenured professors whose rates of publication in the referred literature have declined or whose course teaching loads are less than when these faculty had been younger and "more productive" members of the university "forest". Presumedly such "deadwood" should be removed so that the space they occupy could be replaced by younger, "faster-growing" academic timber. Supposedly this avoids an intellectual "timber famine". Roles of dead redwoods teach a different lesson. "Deadwood" is beneficial, perhaps essential, to the sylvan academy. Even when such "slow-growing", " dead snag" (recall preceding photograph), or "rotten log" professors do remain as part of the stand of scholars they may serve useful, even indespensible, purposes. They may, for example, provide more counseling or consolation to students which the untenured, "higher-producing" junior faculty cannot afford to furnish in a "Publish or Perish" dense, highly competitive forest community. "Deadwood" faculty may serve to nourish or protect the young, rapid-growing, developing, junior "trees" who are now publishing productively, but which, in turn, in later stages of their academic life cycle become "deadwood" after they have passed their prime as "ripe timber", "seed trees", etc. Many lessons in life are taught by forest and range.

105. More "deadwood"- Another nurse log in an old-growth coast redwood forest served as the nursery fo a western hemlock, various ferns, and California or blue huckleberry. Note that several of the roots of the western hemlock grew around the redwood log and down into the soil below. Coast redwood regenerates sexually best when its seed comes into contact with mineral soil (the A horizon rather than the O holrizon), but western hemlock and Sitka spruce readily germinate, emerge, and root in deep organic matter like forest duff or rotten wood as in nurse logs. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

106. More useful dead wood- Snag of western hemlock with fruiting bodies of artist's conk running wild. Artist's conk was once interpreted as Fomes applanatum, but present interpretation is that this is a complex of three taxa now named Ganoderma applanatum). Such snags also provide habitat for animals including such vertebrates as cavity nesting birds and mammals.

Caution to greenhorns in the woods: stand clear of snags on windy days. These "widow-makers" can fall in even modest winds resulting in killing or crimpling of those within reach (fall radius) of the snag. Some things are best admired from a distance.

Jedidah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

107. Artist's conk (Ganoderma applanatum complex, formerly Fomes applanatum)- Underside of artist's conk on the westrn hemlock snag shown in the preceding slide. Mosses and ferns had also set up housekeeping on this column of dead wood.

Jedidah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte County, California. June.

108. Interior of old-growth coast redwood forest- The climax vegetation seen here is a composite of the layers in this forest cover type. It shows that there is browse in virgin redwood forests such that even this dense primeval woods does function as permanent forest range (ie. redwood forest is not transitory range only; the type provides browse at all stages of succession on some sites). The tallest of the understory trees is tan oak (one in full-bloom is immediately to the left of the center redwood). The tallest shrub (sometimes of tree height and form) is red bilberry or red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium). It is the woody plant directly in front of the center redwood. Blue or California huckleberry is to left and rear of the center redwood. California hazelnut (Corylus cornuta var. californica= C. rostrata var.californica) is barely visible at far right. Herbaceous layer is almost exclusively sword fern.

109. Fog in the forest- Fog is a major abiotic factor in the coast redwood and other Coast Range forest cover types. The slide presented here captured the common presence of fog and another sample of the species composition of the redwood type. Sitka spruce (foremost tree on the left with dead basal branches) was an associate species to coast redwood on this second-growth forest. Both Sitka spruce and redwood have been rated as Tolerant (Wenger, 1984, p. 3). These two conifers along with western hemlock (Very Tolerant rating) are commonly associated with, by definition, coast redwood the dominant and Sitka spruce and western hemlock being associate species. Redwood sorrel was abundant in this stand which, unlike the foggy scene at this instant point in time, normally received more light than adjoining virgin stands. Ferns, including the ever-present sword fern, was also extremely abundant in this light environment.

110. Grove of giants- Interior of an old-growth grove of coast redwood of density and immensity for which the species and its forest is famous. Giant, mature redwoods grew so dense in this grove or local stand that the understorey was limited primarily to redwood regeneration (mostly sprouts from burls and trunk bases) and ferns with most of the latter limited to sword ferns. Redwood sorrel was present only in less shaded areas though it was a local dominant on such less densely shaded spots. The burl on right side of foremost redwood was approximate size of a family dining table (compare to large sword ferns to its right). These epicormis burls are capable of producing profuse branching (shown in next photograph) and, should the tree suffer major damage, regeneration of a new trunk.

Founders' Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California.

111. Burl growth- Obviously this was not a sunlite picture, but even in the dim natural light (early afternoon) in shade of ancient redwoods the profuse foliage produced by a large burl on a grove redwood illustrated the capacity for regenerating growth of this epicormic tissue. Certain individual trees of coast redwood and/or redwoods in certain habitats produce burls more readily and abundantly than those of other genotypes and environments. Whether this is genetic (perhaps, ecotypic variation), phenotypic plasticity in response to local growing conditions, and/or specific features of local environment was not known to this author. One thing for certain: those big chunks of sprouting wood on a giant tree trunk are impressive.

Founders' Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California.

112. Fire as a factor- Fire is something of an enigma to coast redwood. Disturbances like intense fire, flooding, and silvicultural treatments that expose mineral soil permit establishment of redwood seedlings. Yet, fire as stand destroying crown fires or even rather low-intensity surface fires can result in injury to redwoods. The trunk base of this old, gigantic redwood had experenced surface fire(s) to such extent that the huge trunk at the butt swell was burnt "plumb through". Such heat injury and physical loss of tissue, especially the living cambium layer, permits entry of pathogens such as fungus species which can then induce degenerative diseases like heart rot.

Overall, fire has always been a major factor in redwood forests: just one more thing with which these marvelous trees and their forests have evolved over the millenia. Fire does kill some redwoods, but it more readily kills some associated conifers including western hemlock and Sitka spruce which do not sprout and do not require exposed mineral soil to the degree that is optimum for coast redwood. If forest fire was an exterminating "enemy" of coast redwood this species would have gone extinct thousands of years ago.

Numerous forest ecologists interpret coast redwood as a fire type. Zinke (in Barbour and Major, 1995, p. 696) wondered if coast redwood forests could be maintained in absence of recurrent fire (natural or prescription) and flood cycles.

Incidentially, the burnt-through specimen teaching this lesson was still "alive and well".

Founders' Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California.

113. Tan oak (Lithocarpus densiflorus)- Tan oak is, with Padific madrone (Arbutus menziesii), the major hardwood tree associated with the coast redwood cover type (Roy in [Eyre, 1980, p. 109]). This attractive member of the Fagaceae gets it's common name from the former widespread use of it's high-tannin content bark (Peattie, 1953, ps. 414-415) for tanning cattle hides. The earliest major industry in Spanish-Mexican California was commerce in hides and tallow (the latter mostly for candles). New England merchants sailed their ships around the horn of South America (there being no American Cannel at Panama) up to ports in California like San Francisco. There was global trade in cattle hides that were produced in abundance on ranges in both North and South America. As Adam Smith wrote in Wealth of Nations (Smith, 1776, ps. 200-202) it is the province of early livestock industries in developing countries to deal in commodities like wool, hides, and tallow. Every California rangeman (and those Californians wanting to know the real [vs. Hollywood] culture of their grand Bear Flag Republic) should read the story of the California hide trade in the classic Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana (1840). The other classic in this context is The Cattle on a Thousand Hills by Cleland (1941, ps. 31,34,106, 111, 134, 135, 185, 188, 197). For years the real currency of California was cattle hides. In remote parts of the "real California" where folk are countrified (and proud of it) a cow hide is still known as a "California banknote". "Frisco" once had excellent tanneries, but that was when it had more character than snobbery. Tan oak was also known as squaw oak after the habit of California Indians making a flour and mush from the crushed and extracted acorns (Peattie, 1953, p. 415). Trinity California, California. June.

114. Leaves and fruit of big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum)- This is another hardwood tree species found in the second tree layer in coast redwood forests. It is more commonly found in other communities in the coastal Pacific Northwest including those of riparian habitats. Broadleaf or Oregon maple, other common names for this species, was given a tolerance rating of Tolerant by the Society of American Foresters (Wenger, 1984, p.4 ). This is one of the few commercially important hardwood tree species along the Pacific Coast, but as a prolific sprouter it is more often a silvicultural weed treebut it is not a pioneer species that aggressively invades clearcuts (Minore and Zasada, In Burns and Honkala, 1990, p. 33-40). It is an example of the remarkable species diversity of the coast redwood forest cover type.

Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

115. Archtypical portrait of coast redwood forest- Coast redwood as sole tree species and western sword fern as a single-species herbaceous understory. On seres (sere: the entire sequence or set of stages in development of vegetation going from initial stage to terminal stage of climax) of certain sites species diversity is lowest at climax. Redwood forest at this specific location is a case in point.

116. Sword fern (Polystichum munitum)- There are numerous species of ferns in the coast redwood forest but sword fern is the most common and often the dominant or even sole species of the herb layer. Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

117. Redwood Sorrel (Oxalis oregana)- This rhizomatous creeping species commonly makes up the lowest layer of vascular herbs on the redwood forest floor. It often grows in patches interspersed among colonies of ferns like sword and bracken ferns. Redwood sorrel is so adapted to shade that it folds up its trifoliate leafs within minutes of being struck by rare shafts of direct light. It is reportedly eaten by grazing animals. It was used as a pot herb by Indians and frontiersmen. Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June.

118. Floodplain redwood- This old-growth grove of coast redwood is growing on rich alluvium along terraces of the Eel River. Contrary to what might be expected of such long-lived and giant trees, coast redwood is actually a species that thrives— indeed often requires —such disturbances as floods, fires, windthrow, etc. (Barbour and Major, 1995, ps. 684-695; Dallman, 1998, ps. 84-88; Noss, 2000, ps. 111-116). Barbour (1993, p. 56) noted that "protecting" redwoods from fire and flood would eventually lead to their extermination. This is why silviculturalists and commercial lumberman often favor clearcutting (even-aged management) over selective cutting (uneven-aged management), but coast redwood seedlings often survive and grow faster with some shade which moderates temperature (Barbour, 1993, p. 57).

Coast redwood is one of the few conifers that resprouts. Large redwood trunks often have massive burls of meristematic tissue from which new stems sprout following fire or covering by mud, silt, etc. following floods. These burls may weigh in terms of tons and grow at heights 100 feet above the forest floor (Eifert, 1998, p. 17).. Like the quaking aspen and grasses redwood is a clonal organism. Thousand-year old trees may be resprouts from burned, mud-covered, or fallen trees which in turn had been resprouts. The burls appear to be more common on redwoods growing on floodplains. At least four burls are visible on the center tree in this grove, including one high up on the bole. This is a luxuriant herbaceous understory of redwood sorrel, sword fern, and bracken fern, but woody understory is limited strictly to young redwoods.

In Founders Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest). SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Coast redwood/sword fern association of Kagan et al. (2004).

119. Banana slug (Ariolimax columbianus)- This critter reminds the range and forest practitioner that not all herbivores are economically important vertebrates or even insects. The shell-less mollusk seen here may function as a decomposer of sorts by consuming and reducing compost, but it also feeds on and contributes to death of redwood seedlings (Noss, 2000, p. 147). Regeneration of one of the largest and longest-lived organisms on Earth can be affected by an invertebrate not even "respectable" enough to have an exoskeleton or snail shell.

Not every thing in an ecosystem is indispensable to that ecosystem (essential for ecosystem function), but nothing in an ecosystem is unimportant.

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232.

120. Forest products industry in the famed Redwood Empire- This is a terminal landing for redwood and Douglas fir logs harvested from the Pacific Coast Redwood Forest at base of a crop of second- growth redwoods growing on a clearcut.

Homo sapiens is the most versatile animal on this planet and he has successfully exploited its resources to the extent that he appears likely to overpopulate his habitat (if not done so already). The solution to this species-threatening situation is to first control our population and then to scientifically manage, wisely use, and efficiently develop natural resources for production of food and fiber (conservation). The alternative is to starve and thirst while freezing in the dark in sub-standard housing. The gasoline crisis of the 1970s and the natural gas and electricity crisis of the new millenium remind us of the dual perils of wasteful use and inadequate development of natural resources. The human population has exceeded the level at which we can afford the luxury of "locking up" vast stores of resources for purposes of sentimentality, beauty and "naturalness" as seen in the eyes of those who do yet face starvation and deprivation.

Forest resources of wood, water, forage, etc. must be produced and harvested (ie. consumed) while at the same time protected for future generations (ie. conserved) if all people are to share in the God-given bounty of Nature. Forests like those of the coast redwoods provide wood products for "home and hearth", life-giving water, feed for production of meat and clothing, recreation, and jobs and incomes for families. Wisely managed, they can continue to do so for future manipulators and consumers in forest and range ecosystems. Pacific Lumber Company. Humboldt County, California.

121. The regenerative forest- Even-aged management of coast redwood. This group of clearcuts shows redwood forest compartments of different ages, each compartment with trees of the same age therein. On some forest sites and under certain economic conditions even-aged management of redwoods can be a superior silvicultural and forest management practice. It can maximize forest regeneration and growth rate of trees which shortens the rotation thereby producing more wood, reducing risks to forest resources, and maximizing profit to the firm. Alternatively, even-aged management can be inferior in rate of forest recovery on other sites and increase ecological and financial risk (eg. on sites not favorable to coppice sprouting from stumps/burls or where lack of shade results in greater heat and soil dryness and consequent poor establishment of redwood seedlings). Clearcutting is a more intensive practice in industrial forestry and presents both more risks and opportunities. Almost invariably even-age management practices result in reduced species diversity and often are monocultures such as the redwood plantation seen in immediate right foreground.

For years Pacific Lumber Company harvested high-grade lumber from it's extensive redwood forest holdings according to uneven-age management practices. Pacific Lumber used selective-cutting on a scientific basis and harvested timber with minimal impact on the forest. Pacific Lumber was the darling of conservation groups. Unfortunately all of those assets "on the stump" caught the attention of a corporate raider. A hostile takeover took place because the cost of purchasing enough stock to gain a controlling interest was less than the assets in quality stumpage. (Stumpage is the term for standing timber and its value "in the woods", uncut, per unit area.) The corporate raider came in and commenced clearcutting redwood timber (ie. they began liquidating the assets the first owner had been growing for future production and sustained profit). For a while this even allowed a raise in mill wages so folks thought fondly of the new owner— for a while.

The original Pacific Lumber Company was into industrial forestry for the long haul. What about the new owner?

Above Scoia Mills of Pacific Lumber Company, Humboldt County, California.

FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

122. Third harvest (rotation) of redwood- Fresh clearcut in second-growth redwood indicates the relative size of clearcuts in coast redwood forest. The majesty and timelessness of pristine forest with cathedral-like trees tend to overwhelm the fact that coast redwood is one of the fastest growing tree species which comprises one of the most productive forest ecosystems and lucrative kinds of commercial forest in the world.

Zinke and Delwiche in Scheuring (1983, p. 61) reported that one redwood stand produced 5000 board feet/acre/year, one of the greatest yields of wood in the world. Much of this sort of production is due to site potential which is made up to large extent by climate and soils. The impressive records are on alluvial soils of river terraces and most commercial redwood production is up in the hills of the Coast Range. The fact remains, however, that redwood trees are not just spectacular curiosities. They are also a wood crop capable of scientific management and sustained production for future use. Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community or regional formation of Brown et al. (1998).

123. Secondary succession in coast redwood forest- This is the edge of a clearing in second-growth redwood (south slope). Naturalized Eurasian grasses (especially soft chess [Bromus mollis] and red brome [B. rubens]) comprise the herbaceous layer and one of the first seral stages following deforestation. The shrub layer is typically the next seral stage and it is represented by coyotebrush (Baccharis pilularis ssp. consanguinea) as the dominant shrub. Scattered young redwood saplings have become established from seed (ie. natural regeneration versus artificial regeneration by human planting of small trees). Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

124. Secondary succession in coast redwood forest- This is a more advanced stage of recovery on a redwood forest sere. It too is a clearing in second-growth forest on a south slope, but there is more coyotebrush along with poison oak (Rhus diversiloba) and toyon ( Photinia arbutifolia) and less grass cover. There are also more redwood saplings. Humboldt County, California. June.

125. Secondary succession in coast redwood forest- This is a north slope in the same clearing as seen in the last two slides. Here regeneration of redwood is not only more advanced but reproduction was by both seed and coppice sprouting from stumps. Exact age of clearing was not determined but on both slopes regeneration could have been accelerated by artificial regeneration. Humboldt County, California, June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

126. Cut-over coast redwood forest- Cut-over forest are forests that have been logged or harvested; cut-over land is that from which trees have been cut. As commonly and more specifically used, however, the term implies land that was harvested and "let lay" (ie abandoned) In other words forests that were logged or cut and left to regenerate by secondary succession rather than by artificial regeneration as in tree planting or at least being managed so as to facilitate natural seeding from nearby trees. Cut-over forest implies "cut-and-run" or "cut-and-get-out" type operations: take what timber is there and abandon the logged land (ie. harvest but put nothing back for the next crop). Cut-over forests are the equivalent of abandoned farm land (old fields or go-back land).This is not Forestry, but simply treating lumbering as an extractive not a generative industry. It is mining the forest resources. Such was the frontier perspective when there seemed to be inexhaustible stores of all natural resources just waiting to be taken before the next man did. This forest go-back land had much slower rates of reproduction and forest regeneration, and often became by default low quality range.

Coast redwood eventually returned to the site seen here, but an herbaceous understory persist that is a mixture of forbs and grasses. Most of the grasses are naturalized species that dominate the annual grassland type of the interior Coast Range and Sierra foothills and the coastal perennial grass prairies. There is a mixing of species from the two human-modified grassland types (described in the Grassland slides) closest to the coast redwood region. The annual bromes, sweet vernalgrass, velvetgrass, and perennial fescue are most common. Native grasses like tufted hairgarass, California oatgrass, and Pacific reedgrass are infrequent. Bracken fern is a common forb. Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

127. Cut-over Pacific Coast forest in the famed Redwood Empire- Second-growth forest of coast redwood and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). This and the previous slide are examples of transitory forest range. It was seen earlier that old-growth coast redwood forests provide browse as permanent forest range. When, through secondary succession, the vegetation seen here redevelops to the climax forest (if left long enough before logging second-growth) the herbaceous understory will be largely replaced. The grass understory is thus transitory range and is of most benefit to cattle or horses, but even black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) benefit from the increased forage and browse produced by forest harvests. Humboldt County, California. June.

128. Natural regeneration of Pacific Coast forest- This cut-over forest in the Redwood Empire is a composite of second-growth forest approaching the species composition of the climax coast redwood forest. The trees with lighter trunks are western hemlock which is an associate of the coast redwood. The grass understory of the later seral stage seen in the last two slides has been replaced by bracken fern and shorter shrubs like California or blue huckleberry. The forest site seen in these three slides of cut-over forest is moderately level upland at an elevation about midway between river floodplains and the upper elevational limit of redwood. It is about 10 miles coastward of the interior-most limit of coast redwood. Comparison of this vegetation with that of the two previous slides indicates the transitory nature of grass forage on cut-over coastal forests of the redwood region. Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No.27 (Redwood Forest Ecosystem), K-6 (Redwood Forest), SAF 232 (Redwood). Coast Redwood Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

129. North Coast Coniferous Forest- Within the general coniferous forest formation of the northern Pacific Coast there are, as described above (Kuchler, 1966), distinct climax forest communities that adjoin one another in a north-south alignment. On the California map of potential natural vegetation Kuchler (1977) mapped at smaller more precise scale a Grand Fir-Sitka Spruce Forest (K-1) north of the Redwood Forest (K-2). As with most plant communities where these units join there is overlap in a transition zone. This is an ecotone:

"a transition area of vegetation between two communities, having characteristics of
both kinds of neighboring vegetation as well as characteristics of its own" (Jacoby,1989).

Odum (1971, p. 157) noted that ecotones are junction zones or transition belts which have considerable length but which are narrower, and often smaller, than the areas of the adjoining or major communities. The ecotonal communities contain many organisms of these adjoining and overlapping communities as well as organisms which are characteristic of and unique to the ecotone. As a result, species diversity and population densities of certain species are greater in the ecotone than in the major communities. This increased biodiversity, density, community uniqueness, etc. is the edge effect.

The forest shown here is an ecotone between the Sitka Spruce-Grand Fir Forest and the Coast Redwood Forest. Western hemlock is an associate of the dominant, coast redwood, such that together they form a distinctive community. This is a consociation in Clementsian theory (Weaver and Clements, 1938, ps. 91-95). Under natural (including seral stages) or silvicultural conditions any of these dominants or associates can form its own community. As listed above, the SAF recognized Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlock, Redwood, and Douglas Fir Cover Types (Eyre, 1980). Ecotones are possible between these. For example, both Sitka spruce and coast redwood are trees that are characteristic of and limited to the fog-belt. Where their cover types join there is naturally overlap and a mixing of species from both communities. That is what is seen here with these two fog-zone climax conifers: two coast redwoods in the center and a Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) to their left.

This transition zone occurred in a draw in the northern part of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. The California Native Plant Society recognized both Sitka Spruce Series and Redwood Series and both of these were included by other classifications as the larger and more general North Coast Coniferous Forest.

Sitka Spruce Forest & Related Forest Types

130. Sitka Spruce Forest- This is a relict stand of climax Sitka or tidewater spruce in the southern range of this species. Sitka spruce is the State Tree of Alaska for the obvious reason that it is one of the dominant forest trees of magnificent forests in The Last Frontier. Sitka spruce ranges as far south as northern California and the forest seen here is at approximately it's southern limit, at least in the tree and not krumholtz form. (Franklin and Dyrness,1973, ps. 58-67) recognized a Picea sitchensis zone in which western hemlock, western red cedar (Thuja plicata), Douglas fir, and grand fir (Abies grandis) formed the major forest community along the Pacific Coast in Washington, including the Olympic Rain Forest. Zinke in Barbour and Major (1995, ps. 685-688) described a grand fir-Sitka spruce-Douglas fir (fir-spruce, with western red cedar as an associate) forest in northern California. This was consistent with the Grand Fir-Sitka Spruce Forest of Kuchler (1977). Sitka spruce does "form extensive pure forests in many parts of its range" (Harlow et al., 1979, p. 134). While it is a tolerant species it is less so than its co-dominant, western hemlock. Thus Kuchler (1966) mapped the potential natural vegetation as a Hemlock-Spruce along the Gulf of Alaska Coast.

This is the pure form of Sitka spruce noted by Harlow et al. (1979). There are a few western hemlock as well further suggesting the climax state of this community. It approaches the stage of old-growth having apparently been missed by loggers during the 1940s.The understory consist of salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), thimble-berry (R. parviflorus), pacific red elderberry, blue huckleberry, with fewer individuals of salal, sword ferns, and California rose bay. No herbaceous layer could survive that jungle. Patricks Point State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem), K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest), Kuchler (1977) California vegetation map unit was K-1 (Grand Fir-Sitka Spruce Forest). SAF 223 (Sitka Spruce) or 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). California Native Plant Society Sitka Spruce Series as part of North Coast Coniferous Forest. Sitka Spruce-Douglas Fir Series in Sitka Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Sitka spruce/salmonberry association of Kagan et al. (2004).

131. Old-growth Sitka spruce forest- The large buttress roots are characteristic of old-growth specimens of the shallow-rooted Sitka or tidewater spruce ( Fowells, 1965, p. 314). These aboveground roots developed when Sitka spruce germinated on a fallen log that served as a "nurse log" thereby enabling the spruce to germinate and survive in the moist, decaying organic matter. The nurse log subsequently rotted away leaving the stilted roots of the spruce. In contrast to the forest floor in many other forest cover types, the Sitka spruce understory may become better developed with advance of the sere due to thinning of the spruce. Second-growth Sitka spruce stands are typically dense, almost "dog-hair" stands. With natural thinning and more light, shrubs are able to survive and develop a woody understory. The understory seen here is an impenetrable thicket made up of the species listed under the previous slide. Here Rubus species, huckleberry, and sword and bracken ferns thrive amidst large straight boles. Patricks Point State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem), K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest), Kuchler (1977) California vegetation map unit K-1 (Grand Fir-Sitka Spruce Forest). SAF 223 (Sitka Spruce) or 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). California Native Plant Society Sitka Spruce Series of North Coastal Coniferous Forest. Picea sitchensis Association (if and when such is recognized), Sitka Spruce-Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifr Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Sitka spruce/salmonberry association of Kagan et al. (2004).

132. Sitka Spruce Forest at it's southern limit- A relict stand of Sitka spruce with scattered grand fir and Douglas-fir as the tree story with a shrub layer of thimble-berry and salmonberry, red elderberry and a sparse herb layer of sword and bracken ferns. Sitka spruce is one of the most salt-spray tolerant conifers and often forms it's more pure form right on the coast where salt-laden sea air blows ashore. This explains the other common names of tidewater or seacoast spruce. Grand fir, Douglas-fir, and western hemlock are common co-dominants or associates of Sitka spruce with species composition of these conifers varying locally with soils, slope, salt-spray, logging history, etc. South of this point Sitka spruce exist mostly as a krumholtz shrub due to combinations of warmer temperatures (and drier soils), and wind-pruning, etc.

Patricks Point State Park, Humboldt County, California. June. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem), K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest), Kuchler (1977) California vegetation map unit K-1 (Grand Fir-Sitka Spruce Forest), SAF 223 (Sitka Spruce) or 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). California Native Plant Society Sitka Spruce Series of the North Coast Coniferous Forest. Sitka Spruce-Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Sitka spruce/salmonberry association of Kagan et al. (2004).

133. Interior of a second-growth, pure-stand Sitka spruce forest- This inside shot reveals a vigorous shrub layer in a cut-over Sitka spruce coastal forest. California rose bay is conspicuous. Also present is wood rose (Rosa woodsii), California or blue huckleberry, sword fern, and thimble-berry (immediately to left of trunk but out of view).The diverse understory "busted through" in the last four slides illustrates abundant browse for such native browsers as the black-tailed deer. Forest harvest (either selective- or clearcutting) opens up the canopy thereby allowing more light to reach the forest (or former forest) floor which supports more shrubs (ie. browse). Fire, of course, has the same result. In this way forest harvest operations and periodic fires (even "destructive" wild fires) create better habitat for browse plants and browsers. Usually conifers are not quality deer browse. Among other things conifers are high in essential oils which are detrimental to rumen microorganisms. Conifers thus are not very palatable to deer, but coniferous species are a part of deer diets. In fact, deer browsing of conifers can be a limiting factor in forest regeneration. This is true for Sitka spruce (Burns and Honkala, 1990, p. 265) as with other species like Douglas-fir (Burns and Honkala, 1990, p. 537). An excellent and easily read discussion of the interaction between deer and coniferous forest is chapter 11 of Wallmo (1981).

It was shown that in the coast redwood forest the lovely California rose bay grew faster and bushier and produced more flowers when more sunlight could enter to depths at which the Rhodendron grew. The same phenomenon is visible here in Sitka spruce forest. Patricks Point State Park, Humboldt County, California. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem), K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest), Kuchler (1977) California vegetation map unit K-1 (Grand Fir-Sitka Spruce Forest), SAF 223 (Sitka Spruce) or SAF 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). California Native Plant Society Sitka Spruce Series of the North Coast Coniferous Forest. Picea sitchensis Association (if and when such is recognized), Sitka Spruce-Douglas Fir Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998).

134. Thimble-berry (Rubus parvifloris)- Thimble-berry is one of several Rubus species in the Northwest Coastal Forest Region. It is intermediate in height among shrubs of these forest communities being shorter than red huckleberry or bilberry and taller than blue or California huckleberry for instance. As observant berry pickers know Rubus species are palatable to cattle. Rubus shoots are biennial. The first year the shoots are vegetative and designated primocanes; the second year the shoots or floricanes bloom and bear the aggregate fruits. Floricanes die after fruiting and as that year's primocanes grow to continue the cycle. It is the primocanes which, while still soft (including the prickles), are eaten by browsing animals. Grazing of coniferous forest is beneficial for forest regeneration to the extent that shrubs like thimble-berry compete with conifers for light and restrict tree establishment, and as long as shrubs are more palatable than conifers (the usual situation).

Thimble-berry is especially palatable and vulnerable to browsing damage because it is not armed with prickles (as can be seen here). It grows to immense size along the Pacific Coast rather than as the relatively low-growing shrub typical of the Inland Northwest and Rocky Mountains. Humboldt County, California. June.

135. Western Hemlock Forest- This is the western hemlock phase of the Pacific Coast Coniferous Forest, specifically a western hemlock-dominated community within the Coast Redwood Region of the Pacific Coast forest. Western hemlock is rated as "Very tolerant", the highest rating, by the SAF (Wenger, 1984, p. 3). Western hemlock is clearly a climax dominant being the most tolerant of any tree species in the Pacific Coast Coniferous Forest. This includes Sitka Spruce and is why forest along the Alaska Coast are mapped as Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest (Kuchler, 1966).

The western hemlock community seen here is essentially a pure stand of western hemlock with very few stray Sitka Spruce only on the coastward side of the forest where most of the salt-laden moist sea air settles out. It is a fertile site of recent sand within a part of the overall coast redwood-western hemlock portion of the Pacific Coast forest. Dominant shrubs are blue or California huckleberry and salal with an occasional and unusually small plant of red huckleberry or bilberry. Sword fern is dominant species of herb layer, but deer fern (Blechnum spicant) is also common. FRES No. 24 (Hemlock-Sitka Spruce Forest Ecosystem), K-1 (Spruce-Cedar-Hemlock Forest), Kuchler (1977) California vegetation map unit K-1 (Grand Fir-Sitka Spruce Forest).This is pure enough to best qualify as SAF 224 (Western Hemlock) but possibly SAF 225 (Western Hemlock-Sitka Spruce). California Native Plant Society Western Hemlock Series.Western Hemlock Series in Oregonian Coastal Conifer Forest biotic community of Brown et al. (1998). Western hemlock/evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) association of Kagan et al. (2004). Jughandle State Reserve, Mendocino County, California. June.

Sitka Spruce-Western Hemlock Forest Range was treated above under Olympic Peninsula Temperate Rainforest

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