Timberline: Mountain and Arctic Forest Frontiers

Timberlinewhere the trees endis a biological boundary visible throughout North America to even the casual traveler. Where highways or hiking trails ascend to upper timberlines (ranging from below 2000-foot elevations in Alaska to over 11 000 feet in California) visitors see patchy forest and meadows giving way to stunted trees and finally to mere shrub-like trees and tundra. This book describes what timberlines are and why they exist and what human uses have been made of the timberline environment. It surveys tree species and conditions of individual North American timberlinesin the Pacific Coast Great Basin Southwest and Mexican mountains; in the Rockies and Northern Appalachians; and in the Arcticwith reference to timberlines worldwide.