DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Abies lasiocarpa | Subalpine Fir 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Subalpine fir is the mostly widely distributed fir in North America,
spanning more than 32 degrees of latitude [11].  It occurs chiefly in
mountainous areas from the Yukon interior near treeline and along the
coast of southeastern Alaska south through western Alberta and British
Columbia to southern Colorado and scattered mountain ranges of Arizona
and New Mexico [54,75].  In the western portion of its range, subalpine
fir does not occur along the western slope of the Coast Range in
southern British Columbia or along the Coast Ranges of Washington and
Oregon but does occur on Vancouver Island and in the Olympic Mountains
of Washington [11].  It occurs on both slopes of the Cascade Mountains
as far south as southern Oregon [11].  The two varieties are distributed
as follows [11,75]:

var. lasiocarpa - almost the same as the species, but not in central and
southeastern Arizona.  

var. arizonica - from central Colorado to southwestern New Mexico, and
in southeastern and central Arizona.  

Subalpine fir and corkbark fir occur together in scattered mountain
ranges in southwestern Colorado, northern, western, and southwestern New
Mexico, and in the high mountains of Arizona [11].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES24  Hemlock - Sitka spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES44  Alpine


STATES : 
     AK  AZ  CO  ID  MT  NV  NM  OR  UT  WA
     WY  AB  BC  YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     BAND  BICA  CEBR  CRLA  GLAC  GRCA
     GRTE  MORA  NOCA  OLYM  ROMO  TICA
     YELL


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    1  Northern Pacific Border
    2  Cascade Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - pine forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir forest
   K052  Alpine meadows and barren


SAF COVER TYPES : 
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   208  Whitebark pine
   209  Bristlecone pine
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   216  Blue spruce
   217  Aspen
   218  Lodgepole pine
   219  Limber pine
   223  Sitka spruce
   224  Western hemlock
   226  Coastal true fir - hemlock
   253  Black spruce - white spruce


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Forests in which subalpine fir attains climax dominance or codominance
are widespread throughout the mountains of western North America.  The
subalpine fir series generally occupies cold, high elevation mountain
forests.  Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) is usually associated
with subalpine fir.  It occurs as either a climax codominant or as a
persistent, long-lived seral species in most subalpine fir habitat
types.

Published classification schemes listing subalpine fir as a dominant
part of the vegetation in habitat types (hts), community types (cts),
plant associations (pas), ecosystem associations (eas), site types (sts)
or dominance types (dts) are presented below:

Area                    Classification          Authority

AK: -----               general veg. cts        Viereck & Dyrness 1980
AZ: San Francisco       forest, alpine & 
      Peaks RNA           meadow cts            Rominger & Paulik 1983
AZ, NM: -----           forest & woodland hts   Layser & Schubert 1979
        Apache, Gila, 
          Cibola NFs    forest hts              Fitzhugh & others 1987
        s of Mogollon
          Rim           forest hts              Develice & Ludwig 1983b
n AZ, n NM              forest hts              Larson & Moir 1987
CO: Arapaho &
      Roosevelt NFs     forest hts              Hess & Alexander 1986
    Gunnison & 
      Uncompahgre NFs   forest hts              Komarkova & others 1988
    Routt NF            forest hts              Hoffman & Alexander 1980
    White River-        grassland, shrubland,
      Arapaho NF          & forestland hts      Hess & Wasser 1982
    White River NF      forest hts              Hoffman & Alexander 1983
w CO                    riparian pas            Baker 1989a
ID: Sawtooth, White
      Cloud, Boulder, 
      & Pioneer Mtns    general veg. cts        Schlatterer 1972
c ID                    forest hts              Steele & others 1981
n ID                    forest hts              Cooper & others 1987
se ID                   aspen cts               Mueggler & Campbell 1986
e ID, w WY              forest hts              Steele & others 1983
MT: -----               forest hts              Pfister & others 1977
    -----               riparian dts            Hansen & others 1988
c, e MT                 riparian cts, hts       Hansen & others 1990
nw MT                   riparian hts, cts       Boggs & others 1990
sw MT                   riparian rst, cts, hts  Hansen & others 1989
NM: Cibola NF           forest hts              Alexander & others 1987
    Lincoln NF          forest hts              Alexander & others 1984
n NM, s CO              forest hts              Develice & Ludwig 1983a
n NM, s CO              forest hts              Develice  & others 1986
OR: Wallowa-Whitman NF  steppe & forest pas     Johnson & Simon 1987
    Eagle Cap
      Wilderness        general veg. cts        Cole 1982
OR, WA: -----           general veg. cts        Franklin & Dyrness 1973
        Blue Mtns       general veg. pas        Hall 1973
UT: -----               aspen cts               Mueggler & Campbell 1986
c, s UT                 forest hts              Youngblood & Mauk 1985
n UT                    forest hts              Mauk & Henderson 1984
WA: Okanogan NF         forest pas              Williams & Lillybridge 1983 
    Mount Rainier NP    forest pas              Franklin & others 1988    
    North Cascades NP   forest pas              Agee & Kertis 1987
e WA, n ID              forest hts, cts         Daubenmire & Daubenmire 1968
WY: Bridger-Teton NF    aspen cts               Youngblood & Mueggler 1981
    Medicine NF         forest hts              Alexander & others 1986
    Bighorn Mtns        forest hts              Hoffman & Alexander 1976
    Wind River Mtns     forest hts              Reed 1976

USFS R-2                general veg. pas        Johnston 1987
USFS R-2                general veg. hts,pas    Wasser & Hess 1982
USFS R-4                aspen cts               Mueggler 1988

w-c AB                  forest cts              Corns 1983
BC: -----               grassland, forest hts   McLean 1970
    -----               general veg. eas        Pojar & others 1984
nw BC                   forest eas              Haeussler & others 1985

             

Related categories for Species: Abies lasiocarpa | Subalpine Fir