Steens Mountain Wilderness
Encyclopedia
Steens Mountain
Steens Mountain is a large fault-block mountain in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. Located in Harney County, it stretches some and rises from an elevation of about above the Alvord Desert to its peak at...
of southeastern Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, U.S. The reserve falls within the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area (CMPA). Both the reserve and the CMPA are administered by the Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
. The wilderness area encompasses 170166 acres (68,863.8 ha) of the CMPA's total 428156 acres (173,268.7 ha). 98859 acres (40,006.9 ha) of the Wilderness are protected from grazing
Grazing
Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...
and free of cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
.
Topography
Steens Mountain Wilderness ranges in elevation from 4200 to 9733 ft (1,280.2 to 2,966.6 ) at the summit of Steens MountainSteens Mountain
Steens Mountain is a large fault-block mountain in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. Located in Harney County, it stretches some and rises from an elevation of about above the Alvord Desert to its peak at...
. The reserve features a variety of vegetative zones, from the Arid Sagebrush Zone in the Alvord Desert
Alvord Desert
The Alvord Desert is a desert located in Harney County, in southeastern Oregon in the western United States. It is roughly southeast of Steens Mountain. The Alvord Desert is a dry lake bed and averages of rain a year. Two mountain ranges separate it from the Pacific Ocean—the Coast Range, and...
, through the Western Juniper
Juniperus occidentalis
Juniperus occidentalis is a shrub or tree native to the western United States, growing in mountains at altitudes of 800-3,000 m .-Description:...
, Mountain Mahogany, Mountain Big Sagebrush
Artemisia tridentata
Artemisia tridentata is a shrub or small tree from the family Asteraceae. Some botanists treat it in the segregate genus Seriphidium, as S. tridentatum W. A. Weber, but this is not widely followed...
, Quaking Aspen
Populus tremuloides
Populus tremuloides is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, commonly called quaking aspen, trembling aspen, American aspen, and Quakies,. The trees have tall trunks, up to 25 metres, with smooth pale bark, scarred with black. The glossy green leaves, dull beneath, become golden...
, Subalpine Meadow, and Subalpine Grassland Zones, to the Snow Cover Zone.
Steens Mountain is the largest fault-block mountain
Fault-block mountain
Fault-block landforms are formed when large areas of bedrock are widely broken up by faults creating large vertical displacements of continental crust....
in North America. Pressure under the Earth's surface thrust the block upward approximately 20 million years ago, resulting in a steep eastern face with a more gentle slope on the western side of the mountain. During the Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, glaciers carved several deep gorges into the peak and created depressions where Lily, Fish, and Wildhorse lakes now stand.
Flora
Flora in Steens Mountain Wilderness varies greatly according to elevation. Common plants include sagebrushSagebrush
Sagebrush is a common name of a number of shrubby plant species in the genus Artemisia native to western North America;Or, the sagebrush steppe ecoregion, having one or more kinds of sagebrush, bunchgrasses and others;...
, juniper
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...
, various species of bunchgrass, mountain mahogany, aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
, mountain meadow knotweed, and false hellebore
False hellebore
False hellebore is used as the common name of plants in two different families:* Adonis vernalis * Veratrum species...
. Other vegetation that is endemic to Steens Mountain include Steens paintbrush (Castilleja pilosa
Castilleja pilosa
Castilleja pilosa is a species of Indian paintbrush known by the common name parrothead Indian paintbrush. It is native to the western United States from California to Wyoming, where it grows in mountain and plateau habitat across the Great Basin and surrounding regions...
var. steenensis), moss gentian (Gentiana fremontii), Steens Mountain penstemon (Penstemon
Penstemon
Penstemon , Beard-tongue, is a large genus of North American and East Asian plants traditionally placed in the Scrophulariaceae family. Due to new genetic research, it has now been placed in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae...
davidsonii var. praeteritus), Steens Mountain Thistle (Cirsium
Cirsium
Cirsium is a genus of perennial and biennial flowering plants in the Asteraceae, one of several genera known commonly as thistles. They are more accurately known as Plume thistles. These differ from other thistle genera in having feathered hairs to their achenes...
peckii), a dwarf blue lupine
Lupinus nanus
Lupinus nanus , is a species of lupine native to the western United States. It grows naturally in chaparral clearings and along slopes in California, Nevada, and on Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon.There are three accepted subspecies of Lupinus nanus :*Lupinus nanus subsp. latifolius Lupinus...
, and Cusick's buckwheat (Eriogonum
Eriogonum
Eriogonum is the scientific name for a genus of flowering plants, in the family Polygonaceae. The genus is found in North America and is known as wild buckwheat. This is a highly species-rich genus, and indications are that active speciation is continuing...
cusickii).
Fauna
Bighorn Sheep
The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to , while the sheep themselves weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae...
, Rocky Mountain elk
Rocky Mountain Elk
The Rocky Mountain Elk is a subspecies of elk found in the Rocky Mountains and adjacent ranges of Western North America. The winter ranges are most common in open forests and floodplain marshes in the lower elevations. In the summer it migrates to the subalpine forests and alpine basins...
, pronghorn antelope, sage grouse
Sage Grouse
The Sage Grouse is the largest grouse in North America, where it is known as the Greater Sage-Grouse. Its range is sagebrush country in the western United States and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. A population of smaller birds, known in the U.S. as Gunnison Sage-Grouse, were recently...
, and the threatened redband trout
Redband trout
Redband trout is a fish name that may be a synonym for the rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, but is also used more narrowly for inland subspecies with well-defined geographical distributions in the United States...
. Cattle can be found in the Wilderness as well, though they are excluded from grazing 98859 acres (40,006.9 ha) on top of Steens Mountain.
See also
- List of Oregon Wildernesses
- List of U.S. Wilderness Areas
- Wilderness ActWilderness ActThe Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected some 9 million acres of federal land. The result of a long effort to protect federal wilderness, the Wilderness Act was signed...
- Donner und Blitzen RiverDonner und Blitzen RiverThe Donner und Blitzen River is a river on the eastern Oregon high desert which drains a relatively arid basin, the southern portion of Harney Basin, from roughly 20 to 80 miles south-southeast of Burns including Malheur National Wildlife Refuge...