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induced by the influence of these trees on local environmentnl <br />gradients, but the effect is very local and more of academic <br />interest than of practical value. The practical value lies in <br />recognizing that shading can produce a different r,sscmbloge of <br />species than those usually found and are most adapted to the <br />environment of the cormunity as a whole. <br />Forest. ~~YUnlLies.. Along east-west tending ridges, the <br />demarcation bet~~+een tree-dominated and shrub-dominated <br />communities is quite abrupt. It gives the impression that the <br />species are mutually exclusive. More careful examination, <br />however, reveals such is not the case. <br />The density of the trees on the site exhibits a strong <br />increase as the slope aspect becomes more northerly. Slopes <br />facing due north have canopy covers reaching 90-100 percent and <br />ere composed of Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine and Aspen. <br />Western-facing slopes with less rocky soils have a mixture of <br />Mountain Mahogany shrubs and Pocky Mountain Juniper trees with a <br />few Ponderosa Pine. Steep, rocky, west-facing slopes have a <br />clear preference for Ponderosa Pine with little or no Juniper but <br />still a large complement of Mountain Mahogany in the shrub <br />synusium. <br />Northwest-facing slopes have a mixture of the western and <br />northern slope corrriunities. Therefore, one could say that the <br />forest conriunit~r is either an ill-defined conglomerate of species <br />primarily controlled in quantitative relationships by slope <br />32 <br />