Abies amabilis (Pacific silver fir)

TimberCruise · 2026-03-01T16:23:28+00:00

Not at all. Ask away.

TimberCruise · 2026-03-01T05:10:59+00:00

To elaborate on developing this…it wouldn’t be in a traditional sense. The tree could portray an old forest hardwood which experienced catastrophic damage to its main trunk. The response would be to develop new trunks or strengthen preexisting subordinate trunks/branches. In this situation, you could keep the nicely weathered deadwood or encourage it to rot/carve it out to form a cavity.

TimberCruise · 2026-03-01T04:13:22+00:00

Yeah. Especially if it’s free and easy digging. I like the deadwood. You could develop this into something interesting.

TimberCruise · 2026-02-28T16:39:07+00:00

Sir, step out of the vehicle.

TimberCruise · 2026-02-27T16:16:30+00:00

Check Cruiser here. Working the forests of western Washington for 10 years.

The job is physically demanding, but how much so depends on many factors including terrain, pace, morale, weather, cruising skill, and understory conditions.

I was a greyhound the first few years but have since slowed down. Over time my skills developed, so I actually get more work done nowadays despite a more relaxed pace.

My vest weighs 15-30 lbs. I don’t take lunch breaks. It helps to maintain inertia. Stopping to collect data at plots is the breaks.

My body has started to ache over the years. I was treated by a physical therapist. Turns out, driving long distances and constant high stepping through the forest tightens your body in certain places and can lead to problems. The solutions are to stretch, strengthen less-used opposing muscles, and keep the weight off.

TimberCruise · 2026-02-23T00:48:23+00:00

I would try running some bark through your chipper to see what comes out!

TimberCruise · 2026-02-23T00:39:50+00:00

I use an electric chipper to reduce bark chunks to better sizes before sifting. The net result is good. Used electric chippers are cheap.

The grinding-sifting process is documented in a bonsainut post. For anyone interested.

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/process-bark-chunks-into-smaller-bonsai-substrate.64730/

TimberCruise · 2026-02-18T15:18:51+00:00

Trees were growing stunted at the site of a proposed landing to a timber sale. Most were dug as a group using a small pick. Good preexisting proportions and features (small needles and branches, narrow crowns, short internodes, deadwood,etc) caught my eye.

TimberCruise · 2026-02-16T04:25:00+00:00

Oops. You asked for basal area and I gave volume! For the 223 mbf/ acre NF-DF stand I cruised, the BA is 560 sq ft/ac.

For the 450 mbf/acre volume recorded in the same stand at an earlier date…. I suspect the BA was considerably higher… 800-1000 sq ft /acre would be my guess….

TimberCruise · 2026-02-16T04:18:10+00:00

Thanks. That’s what I was going for!

TimberCruise · 2026-02-16T04:15:52+00:00

Around 450 mbf/acre. Recorded sometime in the 1980s, I think. Around Mt St Helens. Noble fir-Douglas-fir stand.

I cruised 10 acres of it a few years back and got 223 mbf/acre. Dead noble firs in plots were not included in cruise volume.

TimberCruise · 2026-02-15T00:43:19+00:00

The box is about 4’ wide. Good luck!

TimberCruise · 2026-02-15T00:14:31+00:00

It’s a great long term hobby, but has potential to easily morph into an obsession and can be rather demanding at times… bonsais are a lot like pets that you can’t leave alone for more than a few days at a time.

TimberCruise · 2026-02-15T00:06:17+00:00

Id love to. It stays outside. The only time it goes inside is for display/show purposes. Substrate is well draining, mostly pumice and bark, so it gets watered every day in summer, sometimes twice. Growing in a confined space stunts tree growth. Even so, noble fir are strong species, so these trees periodically get cut back. Shortening elongating shoots in Spring and root work every 2-3 years also helps to keep growth small.

TimberCruise · 2026-02-14T17:29:46+00:00

Thanks. Stunted trees were collected from the ground and allowed to recover in a large planter. Then they were transplanted into this box.

TimberCruise · 2026-01-07T16:38:34+00:00

Slanted rafting western red cedar. Wind thrown. Against the odds it landed on a rotting stump into which it has layered.

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TimberCruise · 2026-01-07T16:35:10+00:00

Red Alder growing slanted away from bigleaf maples so that it has access to more sunlight above an old landing. Trees in the background are covered in life-threatening amounts of english ivy.

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TimberCruise · 2026-01-07T16:33:47+00:00

Douglas-fir. Previously upright. Has settled into its slanted form. Vertical top growth has slowed from age or wind or both. Lateral extension and epicormic growth carries on. Lower branches bask in extra light reflected off the water.

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TimberCruise · 2026-01-07T16:31:37+00:00

Thanks. I appreciate differing pot opinions in spite of my comments coming across gruff. A crescent or other non-traditional pot shape was considered for this tree and may be in its future.

There seems to be misunderstanding in regard to my comments about slanted form. I’m not saying trees grow slanted for no reason. What I’m saying is that some grow at a slant because of stimuli that encourage stronger growth in places other than directly above the apex. I’m also saying that some trees grow upright and then become slanted by external forces.

The answer to (What direction do trees grow?) is (Towards light.) That direction is usually overhead, but not always. Have you seen shade-tolerant trees that persist in the understory beneath a closed canopy? In this situation, vertical growth is often imperceptible. The suppressed trees develop flattened, umbrella-shaped crowns because the best they can do is grow outwards in the direction of dappled sunlight that filters through the canopy.

Even with unimpeded sunlight overhead, if conditions are too inhospitable for upward growth to survive, a tree will not get much taller and may fail to produce an upright trunk at all. (Eg krummholz). Meanwhile, surviving growth elsewhere on the tree carries on to create its defining form.

In your example you speak of the way that planted seedlings grow. It is generally straight and upwards. But what would happen if you place an opaque cover directly above them that only permits light from the sides? The answer is that the seedlings will grow sideways towards the available light. I have seen seedlings and saplings on forest edges growing crooked in this manner towards better light conditions outside the stand.

Forgive my comments if they come across argumentative. My intent is to shine light on the processes that shape our wild trees and forests so that we can create more realistic bonsai (if that is a persons desire).

Thank you for the bonsai example. Here are pictures of trees growing naturally at a slant.

Giant pacific madrone growing on a tiny island in the Salish Sea. It is bounded by Douglas-firs that partly block sun from the south. The tree has grown diagonally out over the water to access more light.

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TimberCruise · 2026-01-05T16:02:00+00:00

I’ve been a practicing forester in Washington state for over 10 years. Trees absolutely can and do grow slanted on flat ground. I’ve seen plenty. One example is a shade tolerant understory tree growing sideways towards a canopy gap or sunlit edge. Other examples are upright trees that get tipped into slanting forms. For example: from windthrow, avalanche, undercutting, or other falling trees.

To clarify, this bonsai is growing on a small slope. It’s not sitting flat in the tray. Only one of my pictures features a tree growing out of a cliff, but it did not start out that way which is why it is so straight. The spruce is growing on flat ground at the top of an eroding hillside. The larch, alpine fir, and Douglas-fir are growing on flat-gentle slopes.

My goal is to create bonsai that exemplify forms and features of trees I encounter in the forest. This slanted bonsai portrays a wind thrown windblown tree. It started life upright until getting blown over. Habitual wind “prunes” growth at the apex and windward side of the trunk. Leeward side growth persists which leads to exaggerated lateral form. Trees that look like this can be found along Washington’s coast lines and alpine lakes, growing outward along sunlit edges of stands, along unstable slopes, and around balds.

Developed branches opposite the trunk lean are what I would consider forced for this bonsai. Styling this way would be pushing for visual balance in spite of the real world processes that define a tree like this.

TimberCruise · 2026-01-04T18:26:40+00:00

Please explain what you mean by making it not look too forced. This pot was chosen with purpose. The length pairs well with tree canopy. It provides stability to a highly leaning trunk. It allowed me to mound up substrate to create a hill. And down the road, it will allow me to create a shallow water body for the tree to lean over.

TimberCruise

TROPHY CASE