2. Characteristics
• Distinctive cones
• Twigs with spiral of
needles
• Dense compact
crowns
• Needle covered twigs
hang vertically
• Lusterless blue green
foliage
• Tower up to 220 ft
• Up to 100 ft of trunk lacks
branches
• Dense on west side
because of rainfall
• Dimorphic subspecies
• Regenerative
powers(fertile, fast
growing, vigorous)
• 500-1000 yrs
3. “And everywhere you look the great shafts of fir close up the aisles
with their dark, deeply furrowed bark. From time to time the
mountain wind goes seething through the high canopy above you,
as if the entire forest were breathing as one ancient organism.
And if you are still you will hear a spirit voice. It seems to begin
far away at the auditory horizon and to bound toward you- a
bump, bump… bumpadump-as if some creature were knocking
on the great fir trunks as it approaches. This is the call of the blue
grouse for which the mountain is named, and as each bird utters
it, the next takes up the proclamation. So the sound approaches,
passes right by you-for the nearest bird is probably right over
your head in some great fir, close to the trunk-and goes bounding
into the distance. Somehow the stentorian bird seems the very
voice of this profound aboriginal wilderness and its cry, once
heard, will be forever linked with your memory of the
douglastrees”.
4. “In World War II Douglas Fir, more than any other tree, played
a vital role. Every man in the service knew it well, for his foot
locker was generally made of it. He crossed rivers on pontoon
bridges of Douglas Fir, and if he was wounded he was carried from
the field on stretchers whose rails were, very likely made of this
strong light wood. Fir went into the tanks for gasoline storage, at
advanced bases. It was a favorite wood for the Pacific huts that
housed our soldiers all the way to Japan. Every few minutes, 24
hours a day, factories completed another hut; it was then shipped in
knocked down form to remotest atoll or Pacific isle”.
5. It is said that in thirty years during the last century, one half of the
virgin Fir in Washington and Oregon has been lumbered.
6. Ecology
• Tremendous regenerative ability
• Close association with many mammals
• Rocky Mountain form drought tolerant.
• Rocky Mountain form resembles Juniper
• In our area, Ponderosa grades into mixed
stands of Douglas Fir, Cedars and White Fir
as elevation increases.
