Variety of Trees

Approximately 300,000 seedlings are planted each year on our newly harvested ground. Seedlings are usually planted within one year of harvest. While the predominate native tree species harvested on our ownership is Douglas-fir, we currently plant back a mixture of three to five species into all of our harvest units. The mixture changes as we move inland from the coast and as we go up in elevation. This gives us a variety of options to meet our reforestation goals and match seedlings to our specific site needs. We use a total of ten different species, seven are conifers and 3 are hardwoods. The following is a list of the tree species we use:

Conifers:

  • Douglas-fir     Psuedotsuga menziesii
  • Grand fir       Abies grandis
  • Western red cedar       Thuja plicata
  • Western hemlock       Tsuga heterophylla
  • Sitka spruce     Picea sitchensis
  • Noble fir      Abies procera
  • Ponderosa pine      Pinus ponderosa – Willamette valley variety

Hardwoods:

  • Oregon ash       Fraxinus latifolia
  • Bigleaf maple     Acer macrophyllum
  • Red alder      Alnus rubra
  • Cottonwood     Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa   

Starker Forests decided to go with multi-species planting for several reasons:
  1. First, it gives us more product options in the future.
  2. Second, we can reduce the risk of disease or insects destroying all of our forests. If one tree species is affected, we would have others to take its place.
  3. Third, some tree species grow better in a given area than others. Oregon ash and the Willamette Valley variety of ponderosa pine grow well in heavy clay soils. These soils are typically very wet in the winter and very dry in the summer. Douglas-fir and grand fir do not do well on these sites.

Seedlings are planted during the fall (October) and in the winter (January through March). Seedling survival is typically greater than 95%. We check our seedling survival in the fall after the first growing season, the second growing season, and after the fourth growing season.