Or Wild and Scenic Rivers System
Cascades Ecoregion ◆ Introduction 115 Young Volcanoes and Old Forests Cascades Ecoregion he Oregon portion of the Cascades Ecoregion encompasses 7.2 million growth forests. These include Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, beaver, black bear, coyote, acres and contains the highest mountains in the state. The Cascades marten, fisher, cougar, raccoon, rabbits, squirrels and (probably) lynx. Bird species Ecoregion is the backbone of Oregon, stretching lengthwise from the include the northern spotted owl and other owls, blue and ruffed grouse, band-tailed T Columbia River Gorge almost to the California border. Its width is pigeon, mountain quail, hawks, numerous songbirds, pileated woodpecker and other defined by the Willamette Valley and Klamath Mountains Ecoregions woodpeckers, bald eagle, golden eagle, osprey and peregrine falcon. Fish species include on the west and the Eastern Cascade Slope and Foothills Ecoregion on the east. The Pacific salmon stocks, bull trout and rainbow trout. Five of the eleven species endemic to highest peak is Mount Hood (11,239’). This ecoregion also extends northward into the ecoregion are amphibians: Pacific giant salamander, Cascade seep salamander, Washington and has three unusual outlier terrestrial “islands:” Paulina Mountains Oregon slender salamander, Larch Mountain salamander and the Cascades frog. southeast of Bend, Black Butte near Sisters and Mount Shasta in California. The effects of latitude on forest type are obvious in the Cascades as they range from Geologically, the ecoregion consists of two mountain ranges: the High Cascades the Columbia River to the California border. The effects of elevation are dramatic as well. and the Western (sometimes called “Old”) Cascades. Both are parallel north-south Beginning at the Willamette Valley margin and heading both eastward and ranges, but they are geologically distinct, as one is much older than the other.
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