these trees were in full leaf, alders were half leafed-out, and in
the lakes water buttercup, water smartweed, and yellow pond lily
had reached the surface.

Coniferous forest: The coniferous forest that covers much of the
dry uplands is composed largely of lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta,
with a lesser amount of Engelmann spruce, Picea Engelmanni, and
Douglas fir. Pseudotsuga taxifolia. Here and there amongst the
Conifers are groups or islands of aspen, Populus tremuloides.

Along the lake shores below the pinelands the small stands of coni-
ferous trees are dominated by Engelmann spruce and black spruce,
Picea mariana. Viewed from the lake on a clear morning this con-
dition becomes clearly apparent when slanting sunlight brightens
the glaucous green of the spruces into sharp relief against the
dark, clear green of the pines behind them. There is little under-
brush and the matured forest is open so that travel on foot is easy
except where reproduction following spot fires has produced dense
thickets. Here and there in depressions are alder copses, none of
the trees over six feet in height. The forest floor is grassy with
numerous flowering plants, or covered by blueberries of two species,
Vaccinium caespitosum and Vaccinium canadense, or by stretches of
kinnikinnick Arctostaphylos uva ursi. Single clumps of prostrate
juniper Juniperus communis are not uncommon.

Birds commonly seen in this type of forest were Hammond fly-
catcher, red-breasted nuthatch, ruby-crowned kinglet, golden-crowned
kinglet, American robin, hermit thrush, chipping sparrow and Oregon
junco. Occasionally a flicker or Canada jay was seen or heard and
less frequently a goshawk was sighted

Aspen forest: These are extensive and some are in nearly pure stands.
Thus a sloping hillside on the east side of Puntchesakut Lake is
covered with a forest of this type that extends along shore for a
mile or so and upward to the summit of the hilltop. In mid-May this
forest became a central point of interest in the landscape, when in
half-leaf it billowed up from the shore in a cloud of misty green.

In some places the trees are tall and without branches for 20 or 30
feet from the base; one of several larger specimens examined measured
46 inches in circumference at a point four feet above the ground.
Prominent amongst the birds in the aspen woods were black-capped
chickadee, warbling vireo, Tenessee warbler, and orange-crowned
warbler

Muskegs: Numerous extensive tracts of muskeg lie between dry ridges
covered with lodgepole pine (Fig 2) Black spruce outline their
margins and occur also in decreased stature some distance out from
shore. The highest and most abundant growth amongst the mosses and