• WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE
• IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE
• PALATABILITY
• NUTRITIONAL VALUE
• COVER VALUE
• VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES
• OTHER USES AND VALUES
• MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS

WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE:

Grand fir is a commercially valuable timber species. The wood is compatible with adhesives, has low shrinkage, and is good for pulping and other light-duty uses [14,21,71,167]. It is lighter in weight and not as strong as the wood of most pines. The best commercial stands grow in the Nez Perce and Clearwater national forests of northern Idaho [71].

IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE:

Browsing: Livestock seldom browse grand fir but do use it for shade [108]. Deer, elk, and moose may resort to eating fir (Abies spp.) needles in winter [127]. Fir needles are a major part of the diet of blue, ruffed, and sharp-tailed grouse. Squirrels, other rodents, and some birds such as nuthatches and chickadees eat the seeds [127,179].

Habitat use: Mature grand fir provide nesting and feeding sites for a variety of arboreal animals [14]. Several species of owl including the flammulated [32] and northern spotted owl use grand fir habitats [36]. Marbled murrelet nest in old-growth grand fir-coastal Douglas-fir habitat in northern California [142]. Woodpeckers use grand fir habitats but often select other tree species within the type over grand fir for foraging and nesting [14,26,29,118,129]. In a study of woodpecker foraging activities in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, Bull and others [30] found that foraging among 8 species of woodpecker was consistently lower on grand fir than on Pacific ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine, western larch, and Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir.

Most big game species do not prefer mature grand fir forests, but they use seral-stage grand fir habitats. Irwin and Peek [105] found that elk in northern Idaho preferred early-seral, grass and shrub/grass stages of grand fir habitats, especially when foraging in spring. When seeking shade and resting cover, elk tended to use adjacent western hemlock and lodgepole pine over grand fir forest. In the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of northern Idaho, mule deer avoided mature grand fir/queencup beadlily habitat but used 3-year-old burns in grand fir/queencup beadlily in proportion to availability. White-tailed deer tended to avoid both mature and old-seral grand fir/queencup beadlily habitats [113].

Unlike most big game, moose prefer old-growth grand fir forest. Pierce and Peek [146] found that grand fir/Pacific yew was critical winter habitat for Shiras moose in north-central Idaho, with Pacific yew being their primary winter food item.

PALATABILITY:

Firs (Abies spp.) are generally unpalatable to big game animals. Deer, especially white-tailed deer, browse grand fir in winter when more palatable forage is unavailable [127].

NUTRITIONAL VALUE:

Grand fir foliage (oven-dry weight) contains approximately 1.4% nitrogen, 0.20% phosphorus, and 0.7% potassium [55].

COVER VALUE:

Grand fir provides good thermal and hiding cover, often close to water, for big game animals [108]. Young trees provide good cover for grouse and small mammals including squirrels, chipmunks, and pikas [127]. Grand fir's thick boughs provide shelter during rainstorms and provide roosting sites for grouse, pileated woodpecker, Williamson's sapsucker, pygmy nuthatch, Vaux's swift, and red crossbill [14,127,27,30]. Lists of bird and mammals that use grand fir in the Blue Mountains are available [180].

Old-growth live grand fir and grand fir snags provide nesting sites for woodpeckers, sapsuckers, deer mouse, bushy-tailed woodrat, American marten, fisher, spotted skunk, squirrels, and weasels [14,180,182]. Rats, mice, squirrels, weasels, and bears use downed grand fir logs and hollowed trunks as dens [14]. Pileated woodpecker and flammulated owl in the Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington select large-diameter live grand fir, especially trees with broken tops that are extensively decayed by Indian paint fungus (Echinodontium tinctorium), for nesting [2,180,26,31,32]. Most grand fir may not attain a large enough girth to be preferred pileated woodpecker nesting sites, however. On the Coram Experimental Forest of northwestern Montana, pileated woodpecker preferred nesting in large-diameter, fungi-decayed western larch, Pacific ponderosa pine, western white pine, and black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) over grand fir, which was less common and generally smaller in dbh than the preferred nest tree species [129].

VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES:

Since grand fir grows well in a variety of environments including riparian areas, it is a good candidate for planting on disturbed sites [91,95].

OTHER USES AND VALUES:

Grand fir is grown commercially for Christmas trees [71,175]. It is also planted as an ornamental [71,120].

The Salish of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, collected pitch from grand fir blisters, rubbed it into wooden implements, and scorched it to provide a varnished finish [184]. They made a decoction from the branches and cones to treat respiratory ailments; a poultice from the pitch to treat wounds, burns, and sore eyes; and a decoction of the bark, sap, and sapwood to treat gonorrhea [185].

MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS:

Pests and diseases: Grand fir is susceptible to a variety of pathogens [16,22,71,189,139,174]. Fire exclusion and selective harvesting of pine and western larch that began at the turn of the century have resulted in an unprecedented abundance of grand fir in many areas of the interior West. Disease and mortality are greater in fir-dominated stands than in stands dominated by seral conifers. As a result, these late-successional stands are dominated by diseased, suppressed, and/or dead grand fir [63,139].

Grand fir is susceptible to heart- and root-decaying fungi because it does not exude heavy pitch over wounds or contain decay-inhibiting properties in its wood. Annosus (Fomes annosus), armillaria (Armillaria ostoyae), and Indian paint fungus (Echinodontium tinctorum) are among the most ubiquitous. Annosus gains entry through fire scars, dead branches, frost cracks, and mechanical injuries [7,8,16,71,62]. Armillaria infects roots by vegetative spread of mycelium across roots. Indian paint fungus infects small branchlet stubs. Fire injury to host trees may stimulate dormant Indian paint fungus to resume growth, accelerating decay [62].

Grand fir is susceptible to numerous insects. The most troublesome are western spruce budworm, Douglas-fir tussock moth, western balsam bark beetle, and fir engraver beetle [71,80,117]. Timing of, and slash disposal following, thinning are important precautions in avoiding fir engraver attacks [189]. Several genera of moths, beetles, and flies eat the cones and seeds [65,71]. A list of insecticides suitable for grand fir is available [93].

Grand fir is the principal host of white fir dwarf-mistletoe (Arceuthobium abietinum f. sp. concoloris) in the Coast Ranges of Oregon and northern California and the Blue Mountains. Hemlock dwarf-mistletoe (A. tsugense) infects grand fir occasionally [86,99,100].

Silviculture: Grand fir can contribute considerable volume to forest stands [117,182], but its strong tendency to develop heart rot makes it less desirable as a leave tree than pines and western larch [9]. Hall [90] compared and summarized several studies of grand fir productivity. Grand fir grows rapidly on cutover or burned sites under favorable conditions [,113]. Seedlings on Vancouver Island have grown as much as 3 feet (0.9 m) per year [14]. Grand fir may respond to release, but growth depends on prerelease vigor, site, and logging damage [60,80,117]. Older, low-vigor trees continue to grow at a very slow rate while young, vigorous trees show rapid growth [60,117,159]. Stocking level recommendations for grand fir are available [40,159].

Recommendations for managing grand fir have been summarized for the eastern Cascades of Washington [22], the Blue Mountains [150], and northern Idaho [189].

Harvesting for restoration: Restoring ponderosa pine, western larch, and other fire-dependent communities without the use of prescribed fire is difficult but possible. Mutch and others [139] recommend a series of stand entries, using selective harvesting of grand fir and other shade-tolerant species and mechanical treatment of fuels, where prescribed burning cannot be achieved. They caution, however, that soil productivity and general forest health are usually reduced, and exotic weed cover increased, under treatments other than prescribed fire.

Herbicides: Grand fir is rated intermediate in sensitivity to glyphosate [22].

Related categories for SPECIES: Abies grandis | Grand Fir