Douglas Fir

Pseudotsuga taxifolia

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

“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”.

“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”.

It is said that in thirty years during the last century, one half of the virgin Fir in Washington and Oregon has been lumbered.

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.