Identifying Mature and Old Forests in Washington
State Trust Lands Habitat Conservation Plan
As part of its role to guide protection and enhancement of habitats for ‘threatened’ and ‘endangered’ wildlife species, while ongoing natural resource management continues, the State Trust Lands Habitat Conservation Plan guides DNR’s conservation of uncommon habitats. These include talus fields, caves, cliffs, oak woodlands, large snags, balds, mineral springs, and large, structurally unique trees, often referred to as 'old growth.' By protecting these uncommon habitats, we help protect the species that depend on them.
In keeping with the Trust Lands HCP objectives for conservation of critical habitats, old-growth forest in the six Westside HCP planning units also is protected through DNR’s overarching Policy for Sustainable Forests.
Identifying Old trees and Forests in Washington
Robert Van Pelt
Following the completion of the 2005 project, Definition and Inventory of Old Growth Forests on DNR-Managed State Lands, we produced two guides for identifying old trees and forests in Washington: Identifying Mature and Old Forests in Western Washington and Identifying Old Trees and Forests in Eastern Washington, both written by Robert Van Pelt, PhD.
These guides provide readers with the knowledge and tools needed interpret the ecology, disturbance history (such as fire), and age of a given stand or a tree -- information one needs to reconstruct the history and determine the age of a tree or an entire tree stand.
Identifying Mature and Old Forests In Western Washington
Complete document (10.3MB PDF) - LOW RESOLUTION
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High Resolution Edition:
- Cover and Introduction (1.7MB PDF)
- Environmental Settings of Western Washington (19.0MB PDF)
- Stand Development in Natural Douglas fir Forests (27.8MB PDF)
- Douglas fir (26.5MB PDF)
- Sitka spruce (18.4MB PDF)
- Noble fir (9.4MB PDF)
- Western hemlock (15.6MB PDF)
- Western redcedar (4.1MB PDF)
- Pacific silver fir (6.9MB PDF)
- Conclusion and Back Cover (1.3MB PDF)
Identifying Old Trees and Forests In Eastern Washington
Complete Document (25.2MB PDF) - LOW RESOLUTION
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High Resolution Edition:
- Cover, Table of Contents, Introduction, Environmental Setting of Eastern Washington (8.7MB PDF)
- Forested Vegetation Zones Eastern Washington (27.5MB PDF)
- Fire in Eastern Washington Prior to Euro-American Settlement (26.0MB PDF)
- Stand Development Following Stand-replacing Wildfire (23.1MB PDF)
- Insect Outbreaks, Mistletoes (29.3MB PDF)
- Ponderosa Pine - Part One (26.3MB PDF)
- Ponderosa Pine - Part Two (20.5MB PDF)
- Western Larch - Part One (34.5MB PDF)
- Western Larch - Part Two (24.8MB PDF)
- Douglas Fir (27.8MB PDF)
- Grand Fir (32.6MB PDF)
- Engelmann Spruce-Subalpine Fir (22.9MB PDF)
- Westside Species, Conclusion, Glossary, Back Cover (11.1MB PDF)