Trees at Crater Lake

Trees of Crater Lake National Park

Second to the wonderful blue lake in the crater of the former Mount Mazama, the most attractive feature of the park is its heavy mantle of beautiful coniferous forests.

shasta-red-fir-cone
Cone of a Shasta Red Fir tree, Crater Lake National Park, photo by Robert Mutch

Within the park are represented more than a dozen cone-bearing species—pines, firs, hemlocks, and others—growing in pure bodies or mingled together, forming a confused, broken cover. The few broad-leaf trees that climb this high in the mountains are mostly small and shrubby, forming all underbrush in the open forests and thickets in the moist ground along the streams.

Crater Lake National Park, on account of its position, has the characteristic forest cover of the higher mountains, but within a few hours’ ride from any entrance the tree species found are those common in the lower portion of the eastern or western Oregon region [Forests of Crater Lake National Park 1916]. Although a century old, this is possibly the best book about the trees of Crater Lake.

Vascular Plant Check List (including tree species at Crater Lake – Vascular Plants Species_Checklist
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Forests of Crater Lake National Park, J. F. Pernot, United States Forest Service, Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, 1916. (although a century old, this is possibly the best publication about the trees of Crater Lake)
Status of Whitebark Pines at Crater Lake a publication by Michael P. Murray, Ph.D., Ecologist, Oregon Natural Heritage Program, September 2000

Nature Notes From Crater Lake - articles and stories about trees

 


 

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