Stephen F. Arno - Douglas Fir

Arno and Fiedler have crafted an insightful and engaging paean to the Pacific Northwests most important tree. This is a book for anyone who wants to understand not only the ecological story of Douglas-fir but also how these majestic trees shaped the economic story of Puget Sound and the entire region.

David B. Williams, author, Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattles Topography

Stephen Arno and Carl Fiedlers inviting text Douglas Fir is filled with information about the versatile, resilient conifer that from firewood to flumes, flagpoles to flooring, snowshoes to spars, and liquor to lumber [fills] needs or niches in the lives of everyday people.... Featuring multiple illustrations, historical photographs, and a list of notable Douglas-firs to visit across the US and Canada, the book is a comprehensive look at the fascinating tree.

Foreword Reviews

This book is a gift to those of us who love trees. It reflects decades of observation and research by two dedicated scientists, but is far more than a simple botanical treatise about a dominant forest tree. The authors not only tell the story of Douglas-fir as a species but describe in fascinating detail how our human relationship with this iconic, truly extraordinary tree has shaped our ecosystems, our history, our economy and our cultures in so many different ways. This affectionate yet rigorously documented book should be a must for any library specializing in environment, history or politics.

Nancy J. Turner, ethnobotanist and distinguished professor emeritus, environmental studies, University of Victoria

The Douglas-fir of North America is an outstanding tree in many respects. Its beauty, great size and age, and role as a keystone species have given it a central emotional, spiritual and ecological role in the celebrated old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. For over 6,000 years humans in western North America have had a close cultural relationship with this species, and today, it is widely planted on six continents and ranks as the most economically important softwood timber species in the world. Arno and Fiedler have captured the cultural and ecological diversity of this extraordinary tree in a detailed and engrossing study that weaves science, history, and insight into a memorable book that will be enjoyed by all who love the native forests of the West.

Chris Earle, forest ecologist and founder of Conifers.org

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Copyright 2020 by Stephen F. Arno and Carl E. Fiedler

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Copyeditor: Mindy Seale Fitch

Design and layout: Jen Grable

Cartographer: Martha Bostwick

Illustrator: Zoe Keller, www.zoekeller.com

Cover design: Jen Grable

Cover illustration: Zoe Keller

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data record is available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004770.

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ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-68051-199-4

ISBN (ebook): 978-1-68051-200-7

To Dr. Roland Rethke, who in the early 1960s chose to inspire me and other students at Olympic (Junior) College to learn about forest ecology when he could have joined the faculty of a major university

Stephen Arno

To my brothers, David and Mark, and the many other friends whose help allowed me to continue working on this book despite my medical problems

Carl Fiedler

CONTENTS

Source: Data drawn from Volume 1 of Atlas of United States Trees, by Elbert Little Jr., published by the US Department of Agriculture, 1971, and from field observations reported by Debreczy and Racz, 1995.

Most westerners familiar with native forests probably think they know the Douglas-fir, which is after all one of our most common trees, indigenous to all the western states, western Canada, and the high mountains in Mexico.

However, few people realize the many forms and strategies Douglas-fir adopts to occupy more kinds of habitats than any other American tree. The species comprises two varietiescoastal Douglas-fir and inland, or Rocky Mountain, Douglas-firand includes the giants of the coastal forest, luxuriant conical trees in young stands, stout old sentinels along grassy ridges, and wind-sculpted dwarfs clinging to high mountain slopes. Douglas-fir occupies both damp habitats, such as ravines and north-facing slopes, and droughty ones, such as south-facing slopes, and nearly all sites between.

In moist environments, coastal Douglas-fir is a pioneer species one that depends on fires, logging, and other major disturbances to create the open conditions that allow it to establish and avoid stifling competition from shade-tolerant species like western hemlock and Sitka spruce. These shade-tolerant species, unlike coastal Douglas-fir, can produce abundant saplings beneath the mature tree canopy and eventually form thickets of young trees that, without another disturbance, gradually replace aging Douglas-firs and take over the forest in perpetuity.

Douglas-fir also inhabits some of the hottest environments, such as sunbaked rocky islands in Washingtons San Juan archipelago, and the coldest ones that any trees can tolerate, including subalpine forests along the Continental Divide in Montana and Wyoming.

Both coastal and inland Douglas-fir are exceptionally resilient and quick to colonize following disturbances such as wildfire, logging, land clearing, and even residential developments, where it may later appear as a beautiful volunteer in a suburban yard. In the drier, fire-dependent forests of the interior West, some people view inland Douglas-fir as a sort of uncontrollable noxious weed, even though human efforts to eliminate fire are largely responsible for its proliferation. In inhospitable environments, Douglas-fir alone forms the native forest whether there are disturbances or not, such as in the high semi-arid mountains of southwestern Montana and southeastern Idaho, where the inland variety is the only erect tree. To sum up its adaptability, Douglas-fir is natures all-purpose tree.