This large evergreen conifer grows best in the central Sierra Nevada of California, where the record specimen was recorded as 74.9 metres (246 feet) tall and measured 4.6 m (15 ft) in diameter at breast height (dbh) in Yosemite National Park.

[16] This tree is native to the mountains of western North America from the southern Cascade Range in Oregon, south throughout California and into the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in northern Baja California, and south throughout the Colorado Plateau and southern Rocky Mountains in Utah and Colorado, and into the isolated mountain ranges of southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico.

[19] The white fir trait of retaining lower limbs creates an escape route for medium-to-small forest birds (such as spotted owl) from larger flying predators and provides a drip zone around the roots for collecting moisture.

Recent concern for sequoia groves has caused agencies to call for removal of white fir in the Sierra Nevada.

While sequoia seedlings and young saplings are highly susceptible to mortality or serious injury by fire; mature sequoias are fire adapted with: fire-resistant bark, elevated canopies, self-pruning lower branches, latent buds, and serotinous cones.

[22] Mature white fir–yellow pine forests support old-growth dependent wildlife species such as California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis), Mount Pinos sooty grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus howardi), and Pacific fisher (Pekania pennanti).

The spotted owl and fisher utilize cavities in decadent large-diameter white fir for nesting and denning.

[23] The Mount Pinos sooty grouse requires large diameter trees for thermal cover and its winter diet consists of mostly white fir and yellow pine needles.

This subspecies of sooty grouse has been extirpated along with a significant number of large diameter white fir from much of its range.

[8] White fir is a preferred construction species because of its nail-holding ability, lightness in weight, and resistance to split, twist, and pitch.

[28] White fir is widely planted as an ornamental tree in parks and larger gardens, particularly some cultivars of subsp.

The dwarf cultivar 'Compacta', growing to a maximum height and spread of 2.5 m (8.2 ft), has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.