The setting and historical background

Abstract

In much of forested North America, there is little reliable information on changes in vegetation over long periods. An exception is the Lick Creek drainage on the Bitterroot National Forest in west-central Montana, thanks to the foresight of USDA Forest Service personnel who have photographically recorded vegetation over the 88 years between 1909 and 1997. This photographic series provides a unique opportunity to visually interpret changes in a ponderosa pine/ inland Douglas-fir forest. Changes depicted also allow an evaluation of how resource uses and activities have been influenced by logging and exclusion of fire. Similar changes have occurred over much of the ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir type in the Inland West, where shadetolerant Douglas-fir would represent the potential climax were it not for disturbances such as fire and logging.

Parent Publication

• Eighty-eight years of change in a managed ponderosa pine forest

Citation

Gruell, G. E.; Schmidt, W. C.; Arno, S. F.; Reich, W. J. 1999. The setting and historical background. In: Smith, Helen Y.; Arno, Stephen F., eds. Eighty-eight years of change in a managed ponderosa pine forest. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-23. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 3-4