General information

Provisional. A provisional ecological site description has undergone quality control and quality assurance review. It contains a working state and transition model and enough information to identify the ecological site.

MLRA notes

Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): 003X–Olympic and Cascade Mountains

This area includes the west slope and parts of the east slope of the Cascades Mountains in Washington and Oregon. The Olympic Mountains in Washington State are also included. These mountains are part of a volcanic arc located at a convergent plate boundary. Volcanic rocks predominate but metamorphic and sedimentary rocks occur in the North Cascades and Olympic Mountains. Topography is generally dissected and steep, but some areas consist of constructional volcanic platforms and isolated stratovolcanoes. Elevation is usually 500 to 6000 feet but reaches to 14,410 ft at the summit of Mount Rainier. Many areas hosted alpine glaciers or ice sheets during the Pleistocene, and a few remain today.

Climate becomes cooler and moister with increasing elevation and latitude. Low elevations experience a long growing season and mild temperatures. High elevations can accumulate snowpack lasting into summer and frost may occur in any month. Average annual precipitation ranges from 60 to 180 inches in most areas. Most precipitation falls during the fall, winter, and spring during low-intensity frontal storms. Summers are relatively dry. Average annual temperature is 27 to 50 degrees F. The frost-free period is 10 to 180 days.

LRU notes

The Glaciated Western Cascades land resource unit is located in southwestern Washington primarily along the western slope of the Cascade Range. It is bounded by the Snoqualmie Pass area to the north and the Columbia River to the south. To the west is the Puget Sound Trough (MLRA 2) and to the east is the drier eastern slope of the Cascade Range (MLRA 6).

The major rivers originating in the LRU are the Puyallup and Nisqually Rivers which drain to Puget Sound and the Cowlitz and Lewis Rivers which drain west to the Columbia.

Some of the lithology in the LRU is the result of numerous accretions from tectonic subduction of the Pacific plate along the margin of the North American plate creating combinations of metamorphized sedimentary or oceanic rock and intrusive volcanic plutons. The Cascades in this area have a long history of volcanic activity starting about 55 million years ago. Eruptions have created a complex sequence of low-silica and silica-rich depositions that have been eroded and buried repeatedly (Washington Geological Survey). Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount Saint Helens are volcanoes and the most notable peaks; Mount Saint Helens continues to vent after the 1980 eruption. Alpine glaciers still remain active at the highest elevations. The area was not influenced by continental glaciation, however Pleistocene alpine glaciation modified much of the dissected terrain and contributed glacial sediment to the complex combination of lithologies and volcanism.

Soils are mainly Spodosols and Andisols.

Vegetation is primarily dense forest with some parkland in subalpine and alpine areas. Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii ) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) are the dominate tree species found at lower elevations; western redcedar (Thuja plicata) is quite common. Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis) and mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) are the primary tree species in the higher elevations; subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and Alaska cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) can be widespread as well.

Classification relationships

mountain hemlock/rusty menziesia-big huckleberry
mountain hemlock/beargrass-low huckleberry

Ecological site concept

This ecological site resides on mountain slopes, broad tops of ridges, and valley floors in the mountains at elevations of 3,600 to 5700 feet on slopes 25 to 55 percent with cold climatic conditions (average frost free days is 45 to 80 days, mean annual precipitation is 65 to 95 inches and average mean annual air temperature is 38 to 42 degrees Fahrenheit). Soils are mostly Andisols or Spodosols with some Inceptisols. The soils have high amounts of organic material in the upper part and andic soil properites are present in Spodosols and Inceptisols. Parent material is primarily volcanic ash mixed with colluvium from glacial till or igneous or metaphorphic rock. Most soils have a lithic contact withing 40 to 60 inches from the soil surface and have ashy-skeletal or medial-skeletal textures. The soil moisture regime is udic and the soil temperature regime is cryic. This site occurs in the mountain hemlock areas within LRU C, which span the highest closed canopy forests, directly below the open canopy Pinus albicaulis and subalpine parklands. These forests have a deep, persistent snowpack and a short growing season. Fires occur frequently from lightning strikes Although most fires are very small, infrequently there are large stand replacing fires approximately every 300 to 400 years. Insects and diseases impact these forests on small scales including heart and butt rot, root rot, bark beetles, and others. Heath species may be common and avalanches may be a more dominant disturbance in some areas, reoccurring in the same areas repeatedly. The reference community has mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and can have high cover of Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis) and seral trees including subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and Engelmann spruce (Pinus engelmannii). The shrubby understory typically has rusty menziesia (Menziesia ferruginea), Alaska blueberry (Vaccinium alaskense), Cascade azalea (Rhododendron albiflorum) and common beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax). The highest elevations have heath species such as pink mountainheath (Phyllodoce gladuliflora).

Associated sites

Similar sites

Table 1. Dominant plant species