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to reforest due to any or all of various factors like severe <br /> • climate, unprotected windblown slopes, solarization, seedling <br /> dessication, lack of proper seed source due to destruction or <br /> distance, and competition with other vegetation, especially <br /> grasses. Tree stumps remain in many of the openings while others <br /> appear as alpine tundra invasions with plants such as tufted <br /> hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa) and willow. Lodge pole pine <br /> has not been an aggressive invader, but does dominate scattered <br /> areas. <br /> The alpine-tundra lies above 11, 800 feet -elevation in <br /> the alpine zone. A variety of. sites and microclimates produced <br /> by glaciation, wind, frost action, water and soil creep provide <br /> habitats ranging from cold wet bogs to shallow--soiled grasslands <br /> . to relatively warm dry felifields for a variety of plants such as <br /> willow, moss campion (Silene acaulis) , tufted hairgrass, bluegrass <br /> (Poa spp. ) , Kobresia (Kobresia bellardi) , buttercup (Ranunculus <br /> spp. ) , avens (Geum spp. ) and. alpine thistle (Cirsi_um scopulorum) .. <br /> Typically the plants are short, but range from less than one inch <br /> to more than two feet in height, and are mostly perennial. <br /> Glaciated cirques and talus slopes pervade the higher areas and <br /> are often colonized by lichen and cushion-like plants. <br /> Table 7. 1-1 presents a partial list of plant species <br /> found in the. subalpine and alpine zones around Climax:, and Table <br /> 7. 1-2 through 7. 1-4 provides the major species, their life form <br /> and relative dominance within each of the forested communities. <br /> 7-2 <br />