Stately Tamaracks thrive in the Flathead

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

The rush for it may be long past, but there's still plenty of gold to be found in the hills of Northwest Montana.

Each fall the mountainsides around the Flathead burst with gold as chunks of the blanket of green conifers prepare to drop their needles.

The Western Larch — commonly known as the Tamarack — is a deciduous conifer that sheds its needles each autumn, but not before putting on a showy display of it. The "Tamarack" is not to be confused with the Tamarack Larch, a related species found further to the north in Canada and Alaska.

The Western Larch (Larix occidentalis) is found exclusively in the Columbia River Basin in the Northwest United States and Southern Canada, but it's Northwest Montana that might enjoy the distinction of having the most. The state record Western Larch is located just south of Seeley Lake.

"You see them in places with more moisture, like north and east slopes," said Betty Kuropat, a silvaculturist on the Flathead National Forest and the president of the Flathead chapter of the Montana Native Plant Society.

In fact, the Flathead is host to a U.S. Forest Sevice-selected plot designated expressly for the study of the unique tree. The Coram Experimental Forest, located near the town of Martin City, north of Bigfork, was established in 1933 as an area representative of the Western Larch. Research began in the forest in 1948 and has continued studying everything from how to best regenerate the tree to differences in bird life between logged and unlogged areas.

Kuropat said Western Larch trees are extremely tolerant of fire thanks to incredibly thick bark that protects the trees against flames. That works to the trees' advantage, as they thrive in the types of well-prepared soil that result from a burn and in more open canopies with plenty of sunlight.

Because larches drop their needles, they're also more resistant to more types of insect and fungal diseases than many other conifers. As a result, Kuropat said finding a Western Larch between 600 and 800 years old is "not too uncommon."

The tree's virtues don't need to be extolled to Bigfork resident George Darrow. At this year's annual Tamarack Time! festival in downtown Bigfork, Darrow distributed reprints of an article he wrote for the Forest Service in the '70s.

In it, he spares no praise for the Tamarack, "Proud, patrician, handsome, honored for its long service to the western world, the Tamarack, each autumn puts aside its working garb of green to celebrate the completion of another productive year as it assumes its ceremonial golden attire."

Western Larches are the largest of the world's larches and thrive on moist mountain slopes, which makes the flanks of the Swan and Mission Mountain ranges prime habitat. Other strains of the tree thrive in similar moist climates all around the Northern Hemisphere from the lake country of Michigan to the Siberian north.

And though the trees will continue to light up over the next few weeks, the best show may be after the needles have dropped and hikers can pad over golden trails until the snow falls.