DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Vaccinium uliginosum ssp. occidentale | Western Huckleberry 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Western huckleberry grows from Alaska and British Columbia southward
through Washington and Oregon to northwestern California [16,22].  Along
the Pacific Coast, it occurs mostly east of the Cascades and reaches as
far south as the Sierra Nevada of California [16].  It extends
northeastward into the Rocky Mountains of Montana, northern Idaho, and
Utah [8,31,49].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES44  Alpine


STATES : 
     AK  CA  ID  ME  MT  NY  UT  WI  BC  NF


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     NOCA  YELL  GLAC  CRLA  GRTE  LAVO
     MORA  YOSE


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
   2  Cascade Mountains
   4  Sierra Mountains
   5  Columbia Plateau
   8  Northern Rocky Mountains
   9  Middle Rocky Mountains


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K001  Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K007  Red fir forest
   K013  Cedar - hemlock - pine
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   207  Red fir
   211  White fir
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   218  Lodgepole pine
   224  Western hemlock
   225  Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
   227  Western redcedar - western hemlock
   228  Western redcedar
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce - paper birch
   256  California mixed subalpine


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Western huckleberry grows as an understory dominant in certain moist
lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and/or
Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) forests.  In parts of California
and the Northwest, it grows with lodgepole pine, red fir (A.
magnifica), and white fir (A. concolor) [48].  Western huckleberry is
also an important understory shrub in mixed subalpine forests in the
Sierra Nevada [40] and is a common component of slow-draining bogs in
the northern Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains [44].  Shrub
communities dominated by western huckleberry often occur in narrow bands
or patches in bogs or mesic forest openings.  Common codominants in
western huckleberry shrub communities include bluejoint reedgrass
(Calamagrostis canadensis), Sitka sedge (Carex sitchensis), water sedge
(C.  aquatilis), few-flowered spikerush (Eleocharis pauciflora),
widefruit sedge (C. eurycarpa), tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia
cespitosa), and sweetberry honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea).

Published classifications listing western huckleberry as an indicator or
dominant species in community types, habitat types, plant associations,
or dominance types are presented below.

Ecoclass coding system for the Pacific Northwest plant associaitons [12]
Riparian dominance types of Monatana [14]
Plant association and management guide: Willamette National Forest [15]
Riparian zone associations: Deschutes, Ochoco, Fremont, and Winema
  National Forests [21]
Classification and environmental relationships of wetland vegetation in
  central Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming [28]
Wetland community type classification for west-central Montana [34]
Riparian classification for the Upper Salmon/Middle Fork Salmon River
  drainages, Idaho [45]
Plant associations of the central Oregon Pumice Zone [48]

Plant associates:  Common understory associates of western huckleberry
include water sedge, blister sedge (C. vesicaria), and other sedges
(Carex spp.), tufted hairgrass, bluejoint reedgrass, willows (Salix
spp.), bog Labrador tea (Ledum glandulosum), dwarf huckleberry
(Vaccinium caespitosum), sweetberry honeysuckle (Lonicera caerulea), bog
kalmia (Kalmia polifolia), western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale),
thinleaf alder (Alnus incana ssp. tenuifolia), and numerous wetsite
forbs [28,37,44,48].

Related categories for Species: Vaccinium uliginosum ssp. occidentale | Western Huckleberry