Biodiversions: Western Larch

By Elizabeth Enslin | Posted on November 20, 2009

Crossposted from Yips and Howls

It was hard to leave our yurt in northeastern Oregon with Western larch (Larix occidentalis) at peak color.  But when the flanks of the mountains there blaze with what looks like a procession of candles, it’s time to get ready for a harsh winter or move to lower elevations.

Before being driven from their homeland in 1877, the Wallowa Band of the Nex Perce moved in winter to the bottoms of canyons, the ones we now call Joseph, Grande Ronde, Hells.  There, they enjoyed milder temperatures, protection from bitter cold winds, and less snow than in the high valleys and prairies.

We moved back to our small house in Portland two weeks ago.  We’re not set-up for winters in the yurt yet and have commitments to jobs, family and friends here.  I’m grateful for our city home with its hot shower, dishwasher, indoor plumbing.  For a time, we can focus less on daily chores and more on all the other things our lives demand of us. But I already miss the coyotes howling in the canyon, owls hooting in the pines, the snow, and the thrilling possibilities of the next wildlife encounter.  And I’m sorry I couldn’t spend a few more days with those golden larches.

One of the few conifers to lose its needles in winter, various Larch species thrive in mountain regions and dominate in the cold, boreal forests of Russia and Canada.  Western larch (sometimes called tamarack, a name also associated with an eastern species of larch) has a relatively small range in parts of southern British Columbia, Eastern Washington and Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

Western larch can’t tolerate shade or crowding.  The trees depend on fire (or in areas where fire is suppressed, on human forest management) to open clearings in the forest.  Mature larches, often bare of branches on the lower part of the trunk, withstand fire well.

Western larch grows faster than any other conifer tree in the inland northwest. They’re tall, long-lived trees with sturdy wood.  Even after dead, they provide favored snags for many bird species, especially pileated and other woodpeckers.  The hardness of the larch wood may also explain why woodpeckers often choose a larch tree for drumming.

Larch wood is valued for strength and rot resistance and is often used for fence poles and in house construction.  We’re already eying some dense stands of larch on our property to provide supports for a greenhouse, where rot resistance will be especially crucial.  Thinning out the smaller trees will improve the health of the older ones.

We look forward to returning to our northeastern Oregon home next spring with renewed energy for the many projects that need doing before we can comfortably spend a winter there. I hope we’ll arrive in time to see the first bright green larch needles appear.

I didn’t find a lot of information on larches, but here are a few resources:

Forests of Oregon: Western Larch

Scholarly research on snag-nesting birds, larch and other trees (pdf file)

To see more larch photographs, visit the original post, “Western Larch: Species of the Week”

Note: I’m making changes to “Species of the Week,” the original version of Biodiversions that appears on my blog, Yips and Howls.  Read more here and let me know if you have any thoughts about how it might relate to what I’m doing at The Clade.  I will continue to post the long essays, once or month a so, but perhaps not the shorter poetic or experimental pieces.