Forest succession and stand development research in the Northwest. Proceedings of the symposium (part of the Northwest Scientific Association annual meetings)

They are powerfully influenced by the extent, severity and kind of damage inflicted by the lethalagencies that create vacant growing space. Subse-quent development includes both relays of discretelydifferent stages and complex changes among speciesinitially present. The vegetation of any localityconsists of a repertory of species collectivelyadapted to colonize any kind of vacant, availablegrowing space that might come into existence bynatural, lethal disturbance. Subsequent developmentsare controlled mainly by the adaptations of individualspecies, especially their regimes of height growth andshade tolerance. Many different patterns are possi-ble. It is better to invent additional patterns thanto warp those observed to fit preconceived ones.
KEYWORDS--Forest stand classification, succession,forest regeneration, disturbance effects.