Stephen F. Arno - Northwest Trees

PRAISE FOR ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF NORTHWEST TREES

... treat someone else or even give yourself a copy to take on the next hike... Hammerlys detailed black-and-white drawings of needles, cones, leaves, twigs, and fruits make tree identification not only easier but a pleasure.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Ramona Hammerlys illustrations are worth the price of admission to Northwest Trees, although Stephen Arnos text... is just as important. Far more than an identification book, Trees provides a sense of place and the character of specific trees as well as scientific facts.

The Olympian

Part of the pleasure of reading Northwest Trees stems from its curious tidbits.... Reading Northwest Trees provides an opportunity for readers to branch out and learn more about familiar and foreign trees.

Klamath Falls Herald and News

Stephen Arnos 1977 classic is a book of true beauty.... This book is so rich in detailed, gorgeous illustrations that it should appeal to all book lovers, no matter what their degree of tree-huggability.

Portland Mercury

A masterpiece.

The Stranger, Seattle

A beautiful and meticulously illustrated book.

Inside Bozeman (MT) Magazine

Northwest

TREES

Identifying & Understanding

the Regions Native Trees

STEPHEN F. ARNO & RAMONA P. HAMMERLY

MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS is dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas.

1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201 Seattle, WA 98134 800.553.4453 www.mountaineersbooks.org

Copyright 2020 by Stephen F. Arno and Ramona P. Hammerly

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Mountaineers Books and its colophon are registered trademarks of

The Mountaineers organization.

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed in the United Kingdom by Cordee, www.cordee.co.uk

First edition, 1977. Anniversary edition, 2007. Field guide edition, 2020.

Design and layout: Heidi Smets

Cartographer: Erin Greb

All illustrations by Ramona Hammerly unless credited otherwise

Cover illustrations: Ramona Hammerly

Frontispiece: Bigleaf maple draped with moss in a rainforest

Two drawings in this edition are from Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope by George B. Sudworth, published in 1908: Utah juniper on p. 178 and thinleaf alder on p. 212 (right).

Library of Congress control number is 2020938596.

Mountaineers Books titles may be purchased for corporate, educational, or other promotional sales, and our authors are available for a wide range of events. For information on special discounts or booking an author, contact our customer service at 800-553-4453 or .

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-68051-329-5

Over four decades after it first appeared, Northwest Trees continues to be in demand despite the advent of many new books focusing on tree identification. Evidently people value a book that delves deeper, capturing the character of native trees in beautiful, meticulously accurate drawings and conveying the qualities of each species in an engaging account. New knowledge of native trees spurred us to develop an updated edition in 2007, now reproduced in this smaller, more compact format. It covers southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, southwestern Alberta, most of Idaho and Montana, and the greater Yellowstone National Park area of northwestern Wyoming (see map on facing page).

This book profiles more than sixty native species that commonly attain treelike stature, defined as 20 feet (6 m) or taller. Drawings and narrative descriptions portray each trees general characteristics, where it grows, its appearance, how it fits into the environment, how it responds to natural and man-made disturbances, and how people have used and valued it through the ages.

For example, western redcedar is the tree of life to coastal Native peoples, who use it for clothing, shelter, and transportation and to procure and preserve food. Some Native tribes of the interior Northwest peel bark from ponderosa pines to obtain the sugary inner bark, and some bark-peeling scars made a few hundred years ago can still be seen on living trees. Douglas-fir is well known, but how many people realize that this exceptional species adapts to habitats ranging from coastal rain forest to high-mountain sites and arid plains east of the Rockies? Readers meet our regions two species of deciduous conifers called larchone a towering tree that survives great fires, the other a short, sturdy dweller of alpine peaks so hardy it leafs out in June while still standing in snow. Its companion, whitebark pine, bears nutlike seeds that birds and squirrels compete to harvestthe birds ultimately planting new seedlings, while the squirrels seed caches provide essential food for grizzly bears. The little Pacific yew supplied bows for Northwest Natives, but in the 1990s it became famous, and threatened with overexploitation, as the prime source for a cancer cure. In parts of Idaho, this low-growing tree can outcompete and ultimately replace the spruce and fir that soar high above it.

The Northwests broad-leaved trees are also intriguing. They include the broad-crowned bigleaf maples in coastal rain forests that are laden with thick drapes of hanging moss, which in turn support a crop of fernsa photographers delight. In contrast, hunched-over netleaf hackberry trees provide welcomed shade in the barren bottom of torrid Hells Canyon. Hackberry is one of the many fruit-and nut-bearing broad-leaved trees we profile.

The identification guide, or key, uses the simplest, most reliable characteristics and nontechnical language to help distinguish each species. However, keys are artificial constructs aimed at helping people sort out the messy, often intergrading divisions in nature that we call species. For our key, we have used the best information available from various sources and translated it from technical features and terminology, but we cannot make it perfect, nor can we construct it so that people can apply it without reading about and studying a trees most accessible features. However, we believe it is a superior key to Northwest trees for general audiences.

This book covers trees of the Greater Northwest, a region nearly twice the size of Texas. Our regions abundance of trees developed under the influence of a climate heavily influenced by the North Pacific Ocean. Oceanic air masses dry out as they push inland through rugged mountains, mixing with air masses from the center of the continent that are hotter in summer and colder in winter. Still, our region is the only place in North America where Pacific coast tree species spread inland to the crest of the Rocky Mountains. Highly variable geology and soils also contribute to the diversity of the Northwests trees. Although our region has about equal numbers of conifer and broad-leaved species, conifers dominate the forests and are among the largest and oldest of their kind in the world. In contrast, most other temperate-zone forests worldwide are made up mostly of deciduous broad-leaved trees such as oaks and maples.