2015 Oregon Natural Areas Plan
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Oregon Natural Areas Plan 2015 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Lisa Sumption, OPRD Director This is the second Oregon Natural Areas Plan, and the first plan developed under the auspices of OPRD. It is based on the 2010 Natural Areas Plan published by the State Land Board, which was based on the Oregon Natural Heritage Plan, first published in 1981, and revised in 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003 by the Natural Heritage Advisory Council. This Plan was written by the staff of the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center: Jimmy Kagan - Director/Ecologist Lindsey Koepke Wise – Biodiversity Data Manager Sue Vrilakas – Botanist and Data Manager Eleanor Gaines – Zoology Projects Manager John Christy – Wetlands Ecologist / Bryologist and by Noel Bacheller, Natural Area Program Coordinator Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Chapters 4-7 from the 2009 Interagency Strategy for the Pacific Northwest Natural Areas Network, by Todd M. Wilson, Reid Schuller, Russ Holmes, Curt Pavola, Robert A. Fimbel, Cynthia N. McCain, John G. Gamon, Pene Speaks, Joan I. Seevers, Thomas E. DeMeo, and Steve Gibbons. Cover Photograph by Miles Hemstrom. Cite this document as: Oregon Natural Areas Program. 2015. Oregon Natural Areas Plan. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center, Institute for Natural Resources – Portland, Portland State University, Portland, OR. 189 pp. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department 725 Summer Street NE, Suite C Salem, Oregon 97310 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................................................... i Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2. Designing A Natural Area Network....................................................................................................... 4 Ecoregional Approach ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Ecosystems, Geologic Formations and Species in Natural Areas ....................................................................... 5 Ecosystems and Plant Associations ..................................................................................................................... 5 Terrestrial Ecosystem Types ............................................................................................................................... 6 Marine and Estuarine Ecosystems ....................................................................................................................... 7 Geologic Formations or Features ........................................................................................................................ 7 Special Species .................................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 3. Natural Area Conservation .................................................................................................................. 10 Oregon State Agency Natural Area Establishment and Designation ................................................................ 10 Federal Agency Natural Area Establishment and Designation ......................................................................... 11 Natural Area Protection on Private Lands in Oregon ........................................................................................ 11 Natural Area Designations ................................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 4. Management and Stewardship ............................................................................................................. 19 Management Goals and Objectives ................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 5. Monitoring and Data Management ...................................................................................................... 21 Monitoring Goals and Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 21 Chapter 6. Research ............................................................................................................................................... 23 Research Goals and Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 7. Education and Communication ............................................................................................................ 25 Education and Communication Goals and Objectives ...................................................................................... 25 Chapter 8. Ecoregional Lists and Definitions ........................................................................................................ 27 Chapter 9. Marine and Estuarine Ecoregion .......................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 10. Coast Range Ecoregion ...................................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 11. Willamette Valley Ecoregion ............................................................................................................. 59 Chapter 12. Klamath Mountains Ecoregion .......................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 13. West Cascades Ecoregion .................................................................................................................. 86 Chapter 14. East Cascades Ecoregion ................................................................................................................. 106 Chapter 15. Columbia Basin Ecoregion .............................................................................................................. 123 Chapter 16. Blue Mountains Ecoregion............................................................................................................... 131 Chapter 17. Northern Basin & Range Ecoregion ................................................................................................ 150 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................... 167 References ........................................................................................................................................................... 168 Appendix 1. Forms and Procedures used in the Natural Area Program .............................................................. 171 Comparative Analysis Format for Natural Area Designation ......................................................................... 171 Model Dedication Agreement Form for State Natural Areas .......................................................................... 171 Model Procedures for State Agency Dedication of Natural Areas.................................................................. 172 Summary Form for Sites included in the Register of Natural Heritage Resources ......................................... 173 Appendix 2. Oregon State Register of Natural Heritage Resources as of 30 June 2015 ..................................... 174 Appendix 2a. Oregon’s Natural Areas................................................................................................................. 176 Appendix 2b. Other Designated Areas Conserving Natural Area Plan Species or Ecoystems ........................... 185 i CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION The rich diversity of ecosystems and native plants Oregon Natural Areas Program History and animals found in Oregon is one of the state’s most distinct and valued qualities. Oregon has rain The Oregon Natural Areas Program was established forests, pine savannas, oak woodlands, alpine by the 1979 Legislature in the Natural Heritage Act meadows, prairies, deserts, marshes, estuaries, (ORS 273.561-.591 [SB 448]), to help protect dunes, rocky headlands, lakes and streams. natural areas in Oregon. The law was based on a tradition of natural area inventory and conservation. There are many reasons it is so diverse. There are In 1973 the Legislature passed the Natural Area climate extremes, with rainfall ranging from over Preserves Act, which was the first attempt to 200 inches a year along Oregon’s north coast, to conserve state natural areas. In 1972 scientists and less than 7 inches a year in the Alvord Desert, and conservationists led by Jerry Franklin of the U.S. temperatures from the very mild banana belt along Forest Service’s PNW Research Station developed the coast near the California border to the extremes the first Research Natural Area Needs in the Pacific of the high alpine areas of the Wallowa Mountains. Northwest (Franklin et al. 1972). This publication Oregon is exceptionally diverse geographically and served to guide the establishment of federal natural geologically, having ancient serpentine landscapes areas in Oregon until the publication of the first in the Siskiyou and Blue Mountains, recent Oregon Natural Heritage Plan in 1981. volcanics in the Cascades and the