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.

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

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

• The Pines of Crater Lake - F. Lyle Wynd, Vol. 1 No. 1 - July 1928
•  Hemlocks And Firs Of Crater Lake - F. Lyle Wynd, Vol. 1 No. 2 - August 1928
• "Sulphur" on Crater Lake - Earl U. Homuth, Vol. 1 No. 1 - July 1928

• A Migrant Tree - Earl U. Homuth, Vol. 1 No. 1 - July 1928
• Tree Curvature - L. D. Leslie, Vol. 2 No. 1 - July 1929
• Cones - F. Lyle Wynd, Vol. 3 No. 3 - September 1930
• Snow Pressure Bend - Clyde E. Gilbert, Vol. 4 No. 3 - September 1931
• The White Pine Tells His Tale - Frank Solinsky, Vol. 4 No. 3 - September 1931
• A Challenge - Frank Solinsky, Vol. 4 No. 1 - July 1931
• How To Know The Pines - Lincoln Constance, Vol. 4 No. 2 - August 1931
• More About Bugs - Earl Homuth, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1931
• Carbonized  Tree  Found Within the Rim - D. S. Libbey, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1933
• Wind Currents in Crater Lake as Revealed by the Old Man of the Lake. - John E. Doerr, 1938
• Towering Majesty - Edwin Braun, Vol. 14 - September 1948
• Wizard Island, An Index To The Past? - John R. Rowley and Wendell V. Showalter, 1954
• Charcoal Log Reidentified - Richard M. Brown, Vol. 21 - 1955
• Crater Lake Pines - Orville Page, Vol. 21 - 1955
• Pumice Fields and a Sense of Landscape Wonder - Ron Mastrogiuseppe, Vol. 29, 1988
• A "New" Date for Mount Mazama's Climactic Eruption - Ron Mastrogiuseppe and Steve Mark, Vol. 23, 1992
• Reminders of Uncertainty - Steve Mark and Ron Mastrogiuseppe, Vol. 25, 1994
• Mimicry Among the Pines? - Ron and Joy Mastrogiuseppe, Vol. 26 - 1995
• Ancient Remnants in Snow Crater - Steve Mark and Ron Mastrogiuseppe, Vol. 26 - 1995
• The Old Man of the Lake - John Salinas, Vol. 27, 1996
• The True Firs of Crater Lake National Park: A Closer Look - Eugene L. Parker, 1998
• Buried Log in Rogue River Tuffs and Agglomerates - Warren D. Smith, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1994

 

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Related Articles, Books and Images

• Effects Of Prescribed Fire In Mixed Conifer Forest, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, Ronald and Joy Mastrogiuseppe

• Plant Succession on the Pumice Desert, Crater Lake National Park, Elizabeth E. Horn, ParkScience, Vol. 22, No. 1, Fall 2003

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