Noble fir (Abies procera): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table. Neighbouring true firs have their own pages, including grand fir and white fir.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Abies procera Rehd., pine family (PLANTS and Silvics)
Other names, Silvics	Red fir and white fir
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in the lower 48 states; no Canadian or Alaska status listed
Size, Silvics	The largest known tree is 274 cm (108 in) in diameter and 84.7 m (278 ft) tall, with a crown 14.3 m (47 ft) across; mature trees commonly measure 114 to 152 cm (45 to 60 in) in diameter and 40 to 53 m (132 to 175 ft) tall
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	30 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range and climate

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, Volume 1, 1990) says noble fir is limited to the Cascade Range and Coast Ranges of the Pacific Northwest. It grows in the northern Oregon and Washington mountains from the McKenzie River to Stevens Pass, latitudes 44 and 48 degrees north, mostly on the western slopes and along the crest of the Cascades, with isolated populations on Oregon Coast Range peaks and in the Willapa Hills of southwestern Washington. The handbook says early reports placing the species on Mount Baker and in the Olympic Mountains were not confirmed by later investigators, and that populations from central Oregon south behave ecologically much more like California and Shasta red firs than like noble fir.

Silvics places the species entirely within a moist, maritime climate, mostly in the Pacific silver fir zone. At five climate stations within the range, annual temperatures average 4.4 to 7.2 degrees C (39.9 to 45.0 degrees F) and annual precipitation 1,960 to 2,410 mm (77.2 to 94.9 in), about three-fourths of it between October and March and much of it piling up as snowpack 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft) deep. Elevation is generally 1,070 to 1,680 m (3,500 to 5,500 ft) in the Oregon Cascades and 910 to 1,520 m (3,000 to 5,000 ft) in the central Washington Cascades. The handbook says water supply appears to matter more than soil quality, and that soils are typically formed in volcanic materials such as ash and pumice.

Cones and seed

The species is monoecious, with female strobili high in the crown and male clusters in a zone below. Silvics gives pollen shedding from June 1 to July 5 in its phenology data, cone growth generally complete by mid-August and seed dispersal beginning September 27 to October 7. Trees may begin bearing cones at 20 years, with commercial seed bearing generally considered to start at 50 years. The record cited is an estimated 3,000 cones, potentially yielding more than 1,500,000 seeds, from one tree in a single year. Noble fir produced a medium or better crop 42 percent of the time in region-wide studies, with individual stands going as long as 6 years between medium crops. The handbook calls seed quality typically poor: seed traps in natural stands showed a maximum of 49 percent sound seeds and an overall average near 10 percent.

Growth and size

The handbook says initial growth is typically slower than that of associated species, with 7.3 years to breast height against 6.9 for Douglas-fir in one study, but that undamaged trees keep adding height until ages of 200 to 250 years. Maximum height tops 79 m (260 ft) on the best sites, and trees at age 100 stand 18 to 49 m (60 to 160 ft) tall. Silvics says noble fir has a greater volume for a given diameter and height than any associate and dominates the mixed stands where it grows, and that yields of noble fir stands are 56 to 114 percent higher in cubic-foot volume than the normal yield tables for Douglas-fir stands of comparable site indexes. It also notes the species is very tolerant of exposed sites such as the Columbia River Gorge.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) lists noble fir among the six commercial western true firs, whose wood cannot be told apart by species from the wood alone. It describes the western true firs as light in weight with low to moderately high shrinkage, and lists building construction, boxes and crates, planing-mill products and millwork among the main lumber uses. It says high-grade noble fir lumber goes chiefly into interior woodwork, molding, siding and sash and door stock, that some of the highest quality material is suitable for aircraft construction, and that other special uses are venetian blinds and ladder rails. Silvics says the wood has always been valued over other true firs for its greater strength, and that loggers once called it larch to avoid prejudice against true fir.

Wood Handbook figure	Green	At 12% moisture content
Specific gravity (Table 5-3b)	0.37	0.39
Modulus of rupture, lbf per square inch (Table 5-3b)	6,200	10,700
Side hardness, lbf (Table 5-3b)	290	410

The green weight is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Damaging agents the handbook names

Cone and seed insects. In a study at two locales in a modest seed year, 36 percent of noble fir seeds were affected by insects: the fir seed chalcid in 21 percent, fir cone maggots in 12 percent and a cone moth in 6 percent.
Bark beetles, weevil and aphid. Two bark beetles (Pseudohylesinus nobilis and P. dispar), a weevil sometimes found with the fir root bark beetle, and a large root aphid are named as attacking noble fir.
Balsam woolly adelgid. Silvics says the adelgid does not infest noble fir to a significant degree, despite earlier reports of susceptibility, while a related adelgid infests ornamental noble firs in Canada. See the balsam woolly adelgid page.
Diseases. The handbook calls mature noble firs relatively free of serious pathogens. Gray-mold blight and brown felt mold cause some seedling loss, and needle casts and rusts are not considered serious threats except on Christmas trees. Butt and root rots are named, with Indian paint fungus the principal trunk rot, important only occasionally and generally in overmature timber. Dwarf mistletoe attacks trees in the extreme southern part of the range and has been associated with extensive mortality of branches.
Bears and weather. Black bears occasionally strip bark from the lower boles of pole-size trees, and in one 78-year-old stand, large basal scars from such attacks marked more than half of the noble firs. Snow breakage of tops and leaders happens in sapling and pole-size stands, and windbreak and windthrow affect mature boles.

For who takes reports of regulated pests, see reporting a pest in the United States, and pests and diseases by country sets out which ones agencies regulate.