Nitrogen availability limits productivity and growth in most forest systems. East Cascades forests of Washington are subject to wildfire disturbance with losses as much as 39 % of ecosystem N. However, most fire disturbances are low severity and have far less impact on N pools and processes. Indeed, many east Cascades areas are now nearly 100 years since fire disturbance. To evaluate N availability processes in these fire excluded forests, we measured ecosystem N pools by biomass and CHN analysis and estimated N mineralization by 28 day buried bags in the Mission Cr drainage near Wenatchee. We found that soil N pools ranged 3600 to 5700 kg ha and aboveground N pools ranged 211 to 642 kg ha, in forests aged about 130 years. N mineralization rates were highly variable and ranged 0.2 to 360 kg ha yr, depending on season and site, but averaged 90 kg ha yr for an incubation period during spring months for forest floor and 10 cm of mineral soil. Soil N pools here are in high compared to other western forest sites but aboveground N pools are within the regional range. The N mineralization rate here is high compared to other forest systems but when adjusted for 4-5 months of summer drought, a value of 37 kg ha yr is similar to mixed conifer forests of the northwest. Nonetheless, such a robust N min rate, even seasonally, could explain sustainable accumulations of N in soil pools and apparent productive forest growth in this area.