The performance of eight seed sources of Ponderosa pine in the Denbigh Experimental Forest, North Dakota
| Authors: | William T. Conley, David H. Dawson, Robert B. Hill |
| Year: | 1965 |
| Type: | Research Note |
| Station: | Northern Research Station |
| Source: | Res. Note LS-71. St. Paul, MN: USDA Forest Service, Lake States Forest Experiment Station. 4 p. |
Abstract
The area presently designated as the Denbigh Experimental Forest was established in 1931 as a location where large-scale afforestation could be tested in the Northern Great Plains. More than 40 species of trees have since been planted on 270 acres within the forest, which is located at an elevation of 1,486 feet in the sand hills of McHenry County in north-central North Dakota. The major soil type there is a Valentine fine sand.The early planting, begun in 1933, was completed in 1940. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws.), one of the most extensively planted species, was used in 48 plantations. The planting stock came from numerous seed collections from four broad geographic areas: western Montana, eastern Montana, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and western Nebraska. Because the seed sources were not fully identified in all plantings, only eight seed sources (see Fig. 1) in 10 plantations were selected for comparison in this report.
Although the ponderosa pine stock in the 10 plantations was not established as provenance studies (several planting techniques and various cultural treatments were used, which may have introduced some differences in survival and growth), the results indicate that some seed sources have obviously fared better than others in the Northern Great Plains environment. This paper is meant to give Northern Plains foresters and nurserymen some indication of which of the eight seed-collection areas are likely to provide the most suitable stock.
The comparisons, shown in table 1, involve two basic features — survival and growth characteristics — which were measured with different sampling procedures. The details are discussed in the following sections.