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The Daily Bucket: Fall sojourn to Steens Mountain [1]

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Date: 2022-11-13

Since first setting eyes on Steens Mountain some 35 years ago, I’ve considered it one of Oregon’s crown jewels. The mountain loomed large in my thoughts this year, like a lodestone pulling me southward. I was able to visit my old friend this past October and reaffirmed I’m still captivated by this alluring, magnificent mountain.

During the cool, moist climate of the Pleistocene, glaciers formed in the mountain’s major stream channels, carving U-shaped trenches up to 1/2 mile deep through hard basalt. The glaciers have long disappeared, but left spectacular gorges in their place: Kiger, Little Blitzen, Big Indian, and Wildhorse.

Steens Mountain wears its geologic history on its sleeve. Some 8-15 million years ago (late Miocene), successive flows of basalt formed layer upon layer of rock in what is now southeast Oregon. About 4-7 million years ago (Pliocene), these layers were subjected to severe geologic stress, forcing the east edge of the Steens upward and exposing Miocene basalts on what are now the mountain’s highest elevations.

But east of the summit, the mountain abruptly truncates into a steep scarp, dropping 5,500 ft over a horizontal distance of 4 miles to the Alvord Desert.

Rising over a mile out of southeast Oregon’s vast sagebrush sea, Steens Mountain is the largest fault-block mountain in North America. From the west, Steens Mountain slopes gently upward from the 4,200-ft valley floor for 25 miles to its 9,773-ft summit. From this side, the massif looks like a mere high ridge — a “nothing-much-looking mountain” as described by poet Ursula K. Le Guin .

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Steens Mountain is unique among ranges in the Great Basin in having a huge contiguous area above 8,000 ft elevation. The massive gorges and gentle western slope serve as an enormous catchment for snowpack, replenishing an aquifer that feeds Malheur Refuge, Mud and Harney lakes, and several perennial streams.

Page Springs is a beautiful and birdy desert oasis on the Donner und Blitzen River. Designated a Wild and Scenic river, Donner und Blitzen flows into Malheur National Wildlife Refuge at its southern boundary.

Steens Mountain is a classic “sky island” in being isolated from other mountain ranges; a mountain island in a sagebrush sea, if you will. But added to its isolation, Steens Mountain has unusually extensive alpine topography, which results in a unique flora and some of the most ecologically diverse and high quality habitats in the Basin and Range Ecoregion.

The vegetation of Steens Mountain can be grouped in 5 zones (Mansfield 1999). Starting at 4,200 ft is the Shadscale/Marsh zone. On the west side, this zone includes lakes, ponds, riparian woodlands, and hot springs with big and low sagebrush on adjacent uplands. On the Alvord (east) side, vegetation is alkaline desert scrub.

Shallow pond at Malheur Nat’l Wildlife Refuge with Northern Pintails, American Wigeon, and Mallards dabbling away. The marsh was distressingly dry going into the waterfowl migration season. (zoom)

The high water table at Malheur Marsh sustains this huge Black Cottonwood. Pearl, my big female lab, provides scale. She has her eyes on a Cooper’s Hawk.

The Sagebrush zone occurs at the lower flanks of Steens Mountain (4,200-5,500 ft). This zone includes a mix of sagebrush species, rabbitbrush, and a variety of grasses and forbs. Western Juniper creeps into the upper elevations of this band.

Without fire or other disturbance, Western Juniper readily invades sagebrush-steppe communities, outcompeting shrubs, forbs, and grasses. Here, BLM has selectively removed encroaching junipers to benefit sagebrush-steppe habitat critical to Greater Sage-grouse. (zoom)

The Juniper zone occurs between 5,500 to 6,500 ft. Western Juniper is the dominant tree, with Mountain Big Sagebrush and Idaho Fescue making up most of the understory.

Giant puffball mushrooms and bunchgrass grow under the canopy of a Western Juniper. The puffballs measured 9 inches across. (zoom)

The Aspen/Upper Sagebrush/Grass zone (my favorite) sits at 6,500 to 8,000 ft. This band hosts a mosaic of aspen stands, sagebrush-steppe grasslands, rimrock/talus, and riparian meadows. In fall, this zone is gloriously aglow with the vivid golds, yellows, russets, and reds of Quaking Aspen as they transition to winter. Steens Mountain is unusual for its striking absence of subalpine conifers for such a large mountain. This may be due to its isolation and/or the absence of seed dispersers like Clark’s Nutcracker.

Aspens of different clones weave a tapestry of greens, golds, and reds in McCoy Creek Canyon.

The seasonal harshness of this zone is revealed in the growth forms of its dominant species. Aspen trunks contort and buckle under the sustained, heavy weight of snowdrifts. Likewise, stands of Mountain Big Sagebrush compress under dense snowpack to form stiff, flat-topped canopies that are near impossible to walk through.

Aspen saplings corkscrew their way to sunlight.

Mountain Big Sagebrush sites may hold deep snowpack for up to 6 months. (zoom)

The Alpine-Bunchgrass/Tundra zone lies above 8,000 ft elevation. Per Mansfield (1995), “the alpine plants of Steens Mountain most characterize its unique botany.” This zone has the largest number of disjunct and endemic (i.e., “rare”) taxa — ferns, forbs, and grasses — precariously rooted in wet meadows, wet gravels near receding snowbanks, talus, and rocky outcrops.

An Orange Sulphur suns itself on a cool morning in the alpine zone. (zoom)

Horned Larks breed in the Alpine-Bunchgrass/Tundra zone atop Steens Mountain and are short-distance migrants when snow comes to the high country. (zoom)

Steens Mountain’s diverse vegetation and habitats mean a diversity of wildlife. My visit didn’t overlap with the most productive time of year for wildlife viewing, but nevertheless, I wasn’t disappointed!

Birds

A leaky faucet makes a reliable water source (and defecation perch) for an American Robin. Juniper berries have definitely been on the menu. (zoom)

The sweet song and clear single-note calls of Townsend’s Solitaires were heard everywhere. (zoom)

A flock of American Pipits, an alpine breeder, made a stopover in the Malheur Refuge wetlands. (zoom)

A Greater Sage-grouse hen was gobbling up grasshoppers made sluggish by the cool morning.

I was pleased to see caps placed over these metal pipe uprights. These caps address the hazard of open-top vertical pipes to birds and other wildlife that either fall into these openings or enter looking for a nest cavity and get trapped.

other critters

Least Chipmunks were common in all habitats, alpine included. (zoom)

Mule Deer forage in a meadow above Fish Lake.

A shard of an obsidian arrowhead I found in McCoy Creek, perhaps once aimed at a Mule Deer. Different bands of Northern Paiutes occupied the Steens Mountain vicinity, harvesting plants, jackrabbits, Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn, and Mule Deer. Descendants of the Steens bands of Northern Paiute include members of the Burns Paiute and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

A well-camoflauged Pygmy Short-horned Lizard. (zoom)

Spot-winged Glider at Page Springs. (zoom)

A male Lustrous Copper nectaring on rabbitbrush. (zoom)

A Juba Skipper (I think) nectaring on rabbitbrush. Love the blue-green iridescence on its body. (zoom)

The Lorquin’s Admiral is a large, beautiful butterfly with a long flight period. (zoom)

During my time on Steens Mountain, I kept seeing single, large orange butterflies flying low-to-the-ground in a southwesterly direction. At first I thought they were Monarchs, but they were too small and fast. I saw them at all elevations, including Steens summit. I finally got a few photos of these fast flyers.

Zoomed, I was able to I.D. the migrants as California Tortoiseshell. This species is known for its mass migrations. This generation will hibernate, but where? Lepidopterists do not yet understand which factors (e.g., climate, host plant degradation, parasite buildup) influence these irruptions.

The Moon

October’s waxing moon rising over the crest of Steens Mountain was a sight to behold.

Wildfire smoke casts an eery coral wash on the full “Hunter’s Moon.”

It may have been hot and dry — and it may not have been peak for viewing wildlife and wildflowers — but it felt good to hike Steens Mountain again and take in its austere and awesome landscape. It was heartening to see the mountain in improved ecological condition after more than a century of overgrazing by sheep, cattle, and horses. I attribute the change to the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area (CMPA) Act of 2000, which designated 428,000 acres of federal and private land to conserve, protect, and manage the area for healthy watersheds and long-term ecological integrity. Congress also designated 175,000 acres within the CMPA as the Steens Mountain Wilderness Area, of which ~100,000 acres are now protected from cattle grazing. What a difference cattle-free makes in a fragile desert ecosystem.

Thanks for joining me on today's Steens sojourn.

Now it’s your turn: What’s happening in nature in your area?

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