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DOUGLAS-FIR (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN DOUGLAS-FIR (Pseudotsuga glauca)
Other names: Fir, red fir, Douglas spruce; occasionally misnamed "pine".

EXCELLENT

In California, Oregon and Washington the Douglas-fir is the "first choice" bearing tree. It heals rapidly, is long lived and very durable. Douglas-fir bearing trees have been found with from 2" up to 50" of overgrowth, perfectly healed. When logged or wind thrown, the stump or log will last for many years, with a slow rate of decay. If the heartwood is rotted away the scribing frequently remains, backcast (in reverse) in the pitchy overgrowth. Frequently on the badly rotted stumps the thin shell, or a fragment of the scribed face will remain.

Many surveyors scribed the larger trees on a bark blaze, or "bark scribed". If fire or man has not destroyed the bark this bark scribing is readily seen, even after 120 years. If the tree has died these scribe marks may still be found among the pieces of "flaked" bark around the base of the tree. Many of the line blazes were also made in the bark and are hard to detect. The blazed trees may show a noticeable scar or none at all, except the "flat" spot at the upper end of the blaze where the surveyors axe entered the bark.

In the Rocky Mountain region the Douglas-fir is smaller than on the Pacific slope, seldom exceeding 36" diameter. The bark is thinner and therefore was seldom, if ever, bark scribed. The blaze usually has a noticeable scar. The original surveyors "snow blazed" the tree more frequently also.

When available the Douglas-fir should always be the "first choice" of bearing trees. Select healthy trees, 8" to 12" in diameter. Blaze Just deep enough to penetrate the sapwood, and as low to the ground as possible. Paint the wound immediately for the pitchy sap oozes quickly. If the large old growth tree must be taken in the Pacific slope region, bark blazing would be acceptable, or even preferred to avoid extensive damage to the tree; but use sound trees without, without broken tops or evidence of a fungus growth called "conk". In clear cut logging areas the doglas-fir stump, with the bark removed, is a better selection than many of the more inferior hardwoods or the true firs (Abies).