Most of the region’s old-growth, mixed-stand forests have disappeared.
Between the Mountain Pine Beetle and heavy logging, more than 80 percent of the surrounding forest has been decimated. This satellite image below, now over ten years old, indicates the amount that has been logged, which shows up as light green.
Rosebud Mountain represents one of the last patches of (mostly) unlogged and living virgin forest in the entire area. It’s mixed stands of aspen, birch, Douglas Fir, pine and spruce are increasingly rare as virgin forests are logged and replaced with conifer monocultures sterilized of aspen or birch through the extensive use of herbicides. They are expected to be logged before they grow as old as this forest.
As such it will become an increasingly important regional example of an original, old-growth, mixed-stand Douglas Fir forest for future generations. Some ecologists have even mentioned the value of maintaining this unique site as a seed-bank. One of the northern fingers of the Douglas Fir range, it’s hardy specimens could become an important source of new seedlings into the future.
Light green areas have been logged.