This include forests with Engelmann spruce,
subalpine fir and lodgepole pine.
Latin name: Abies lasiocarpa
Subalpine fir grows in the highest elevations of the southern Rocky Mountains and forms fairly compacent ring series.
Latin name: Abies lasiocarpa Decay has set in on the tree rings of this dead and downed
subalpine fir that once grew on Apex Mountain in British Columbia, Canada, but the tree rings can still be measured and crossdated despite this!
The vegetation in the region is a mixture of evergreen conifers,
subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa), Douglas - fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), Englemann spruce (Picea engelmannii), and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa).
Subalpine forests, dominated by Engelmann spruce and
subalpine fir species or by lodgepole pine mixed with limber pine or whitebark pine in drier sites
Other conifer forest types found in Montana are spruce - fir forest (primarily composed of Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and
subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa), as well as forests dominated by western larch (Larix occidentalis), grand fir (Abies grandis), limber pine (Pinus flexilis), and miscellaneous western softwoods.
But to track snowfall in higher elevations, the scientists examined rings from subalpine larch, mountain hemlock and
subalpine fir trees — species whose growth is retarded by snowfall.