A SURVEY OF CONIFEROUS FOREST SUCCESSION IN THE EASTERN ROCKIES

Abstract

In the Eastern Rockies the most striking and important feature of the forest cover is the disturbance produced by fire. The general tendency is for the burned area to return to the original tree cover, but the trend of forest succession and the rate at which it proceeds is not always the same. In the present paper two general trends of coniferous forest succession are recognized: (1) pine and spruce to climax and (2) pine to climax. Each trend is divided into four stages, originating in a recent burn and ending in the climax coniferous forest. The last and second last stages are the same in both trends. Each stage is named after the most characteristic species of the ground vegetation. Usually these are also the most abundant and the most frequent species. The general nature of the forest soil is noted for each stage.