Douglas-fir is Oregon’s state tree and the backbone of the forests on Mt. Hood’s lower and middle slopes. It grows in nearly every forest type in the Pacific Northwest. Old trees commonly reach 5 to 6 feet across and 250 feet or more in height, and some live longer than 500 years.
The hyphen in the name is a clue that it is not a true fir. True firs hold their cones upright on the topmost branches, where the cones fall apart scale by scale. Douglas-fir cones hang down from the branches, and fallen ones are easy to pick up and study. The common name honors David Douglas, who collected the tree along the lower Columbia River in 1824. The species name honors Archibald Menzies, who found it on Vancouver Island more than 30 years earlier.
Thick, corky bark lets big Douglas-firs survive fires that kill thinner-barked neighbors such as western hemlock. Its seedlings need sun, so it takes over after fire or logging, while shade-tolerant hemlocks and cedars slowly replace it over many centuries. Chipmunks, mice and birds such as red crossbills and pine siskins eat its seeds, Douglas squirrels stash its cones, and red tree voles live almost entirely in its crowns, feeding on the needles.
Pick up a cone on almost any low or mid-elevation trail on the mountain and look for the three-pointed bracts sticking out between the scales.
How to identify it
Needles about 1 inch long and blunt-tipped, green on top with two white bands underneath, growing all around the twig. Buds are large and pointed, with reddish-brown overlapping scales. Cones hang down, 3 to 4 inches long, with three-pointed bracts sticking out between the scales. Bark on mature trees is thick and corky.
Look-alikes
True firs, which share these forests, carry their cones upright on the top branches, where the cones fall apart on the tree, and their twigs show small, flat, round scars where needles have dropped. Western hemlock has shorter needles of two different lengths and much smaller cones, about an inch long.
Habitat
Found in almost every forest type in the Pacific Northwest, from near sea level to over 5,000 feet in Oregon and Washington. On Mt. Hood it dominates the lower and middle forests, growing with western hemlock and western redcedar on moist sites and with ponderosa pine on drier ones.
Sightings in the forest
737 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 28, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →