 But UW botany professor Daniel Laughlin says that after looking at data collected in arboretums across the U.S., he discovered that wasn't so. Those Engelmann spruce? We see it growing here in Laramie. It could potentially grow in the valleys here along streams. But probably why we don't see it is because species like cottonwigs, for example, or maybe even some of the faster growing pines outcompete that species and sort of pushed Engelmann spruce up to the top of the mountains.