Height growth is one process by which canopy trees extend their branch systems in sunlit conditions. Large variations in annual growth might be a suitable response to annual variations in the amount of resources in branches that developed in the past. For two evergreen conifer tree species, Picea jezoensis and Abies sachalinensis, in a cold temperate forest in Hokkaido, annual variations in height growth were investigated using scars on main stems when new branch axes had elongated from the top of the stems in past years. Five trees of each species were investigated by climbing to the upper part of the main stem. Annual height growth in A. sachalinensis was greater than that in P. jezoensis only at the stage when these trees were 15 m in height. For partial autocorrelation coefficients, a positive correlation between height growth in a year and that in the previous year was detected, mainly in P. jezoensis trees and only one A. sachalinensis tree. These findings suggest that A. sachalinensis responds to changes in the amount of resources in branches by height growth, whereas P. jezoensis grows rather consistently.