ALPINE FIR  Abies lasiocarpa

Range: Chiefly in mountainous areas from the Yukon interior near treeline and along the coast of southeastern Alaska south through western Alberta and British Columbia to southern Colorado and scattered mountain ranges of Arizona and New Mexico.

Habitat: The mountains of western North America. The alpine fir series generally occupies cold, high elevation mountain forests.

Edible:  Gum; Inner bark; Seed; Seedpod; Tea.

The shoot tips are used as a tea substitute.

The cones can be ground into a fine powder, then mixed with fat and used as a confection. It is said to be a delicacy and an aid to the digestion.

The resin from the trunk is used as a chewing gum. It is said to treat bad breath.

Medicine: Antihalitosis; Antiseptic; Emetic; Foot care; Laxative; Poultice; Tuberculosis; Tonic.

The pitch and bark preparations were used for wounds, eye injuries or even taken internally for respiratory ailments.  Finely ground needles were also sprinkled on open cuts. Sticky resin collected from the bark was boiled and used as an antiseptic for wounds or as a tea for colds.

The pitch and bark of alpine fir was a very important medicine in the Interior. The Secwepemc called the tree the medicine plant. They chewed the pitch to clean their teeth. People also chewed the pitch of all true firs for enjoyment. 

The gummy exudate that appears on the bark is antiseptic and was soaked in water until soft and then applied to wounds.

An infusion of the resin has been used as an emetic to cleanse the insides. The resin has also been chewed to treat bad breath.

A decoction of the bark is used as a tonic and in the treatment of colds and flu.

A poultice of the leaves has been used to treat chest colds and fevers. An infusion has been taken to treat the coughing up of blood, which can be the first sign of tuberculosis, and as a laxative.

Other Use: Baby care; Deodorant; Gum; Hair; Incense; Miscellany; Repellent; Wood.

Interior groups made large temporary baskets from sheets of bark that they stitched together with spruce roots. They used the baskets for cooking or soaking hides. They also collected boughs to use for bedding and as flooring in sweat lodges.

The Carrier people used the wood to make roofing shingles and burned the rotten wood to make a substance for tanning hides.

Alpine fir is currently harvested for lumber, plywood veneers, boxes, and pulp.

Native Americans used various parts of Alpine Fir for numerous purposes. A hair tonic was prepared by mixing powdered needles with deer grease.  The leaves can also be placed in the shoes as a foot deodorant.

The fragrant young leaves and twigs are used to repel moths or are burnt as an incense. They were also ground into a powder and used to make a baby powder and perfumes.

The wood, bark, boughs were all used as roof shingles, baskets and bedding. The pitch was also used to coat canoe seams and rubbed on bowstrings as a sealant and protectant. The rotten wood was used as a smudge for tanning animal hides.

A gum is obtained from the bark. It is antiseptic and was chewed by the native peoples in order to clean the teeth. It was also used to plug holes in canoes.

Boughs were placed in rooms for their aroma, and pulverized needles were used as a body scent or as perfume for clothing. Resin from the bark is used in the optical industry and in laboratories as a cement for lenses and microscope slides.

Wood - light, soft, not strong. It is little used except as a fuel and for pulp. Indians used it for making chairs and insect-proof storage boxes. It was also used as a fuel and was said to burn for a long time.

Alpine Fir is sometimes used as a landscape plant to produce screenings or windbreaks. In the Pacific Northwest it is sometimes transplanted into rock gardens or simulated Alpine settings.

Wildlife:  

Mule deer, elk, moose, woodland caribou, black bear, and grizzly bear often use Alpine Fir  habitats as summer range. These  forests support numerous species of small mammals and birds. The snowshoe hare, flying squirrel, red squirrel, porcupine, pine marten, fisher, lynx, and several species of mice, voles, chipmunks, and shrews all inhabit Alpine Fir forests. Numerous species of birds nest and feed in these forests, including several woodpeckers, flycatchers, kinglets, nuthatches, juncos, thrushes, chickadees, crossbills, the pine siskin, owls, and grouse.   Alpine Fir can be a major food source in the winter and spring. Throughout much of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, it is an important winter food of moose.  On moose winter range near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, an average of 13 to 18 percent of small alpine fir trees were browsed by moose, and 44 to 78 percent of the branches on trees browsed were utilized.