“…Influences of competing understory vegetation on seedling abundance here were confined to a positive correlation between white fir and mahala mat cover, a relationship that has been previously attributed to increased soil moisture availability beneath this prostrate shrub (Tappeiner & Helms, 1971). Previous reports of forest floor materials, characterized here as downed and dead fuels, impeding natural regeneration because they dry out readily and reach high temperatures (Fowells & Stark, 1965;Helgerson, 1990;Gray & Spies, 1997), were not substantiated here given the positive correlations between seedling counts irrespective of species and fine fuel loads as well as that between total count and total loading. A documented exception, however, is white fir (Gray et al, 2005).…”