Oregon Natural Areas Plan 2020 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Lisa Sumption, OPRD Director This is the third Oregon Natural Areas Plan. It is based on the 2015 Natural Areas Plan, and previous Oregon Natural Heritage Plans. This Plan was written by the staff of the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center: Jimmy Kagan – Emeritus Director/Ecologist Eleanor Gaines - Director Lindsey Koepke Wise – Biodiversity Data Manager Sue Vrilakas – Botanist and Data Manager Rachel Brunner – Ecologist 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: The Rowena Natural Area, part of the Tom McCall Preserve of The Nature Conservancy, and the Meyer Memorial State Park. Cite this document as: Oregon Natural Areas Program. 2020. 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 2020 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 ........................................................................................................................ 8 Special Species .................................................................................................................................................... 9 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 ...................................................................................................... 20 Monitoring Goals and Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 20 Chapter 6. Research ............................................................................................................................................... 22 Research Goals and Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 7. Education and Communication ............................................................................................................ 24 Education and Communication Goals and Objectives ...................................................................................... 24 Chapter 8. Ecoregional Lists and Definitions ........................................................................................................ 26 Chapter 9. Marine and Estuarine Ecoregion .......................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 10. Coast Range Ecoregion ...................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 11. Willamette Valley Ecoregion ............................................................................................................. 59 Chapter 12. Klamath Mountains Ecoregion .......................................................................................................... 70 Chapter 13. West Cascades Ecoregion .................................................................................................................. 86 Chapter 14. East Cascades Ecoregion ................................................................................................................. 104 Chapter 15. Columbia Basin Ecoregion .............................................................................................................. 120 Chapter 16. Blue Mountains Ecoregion .............................................................................................................. 128 Chapter 17. Northern Basin & Range Ecoregion ................................................................................................ 147 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................... 164 References ........................................................................................................................................................... 165 Appendix 1. Forms and Procedures used in the Natural Area Program .............................................................. 168 Comparative Analysis Format for Natural Area Designation ......................................................................... 168 Model Dedication Agreement Form for State Natural Areas .......................................................................... 168 Model Procedures for State Agency Dedication of Natural Areas .................................................................. 169 Summary Form for Sites included in the Register of Natural Heritage Resources ......................................... 170 Appendix 2. Oregon State Register of Natural Heritage Resources as of 31 December 2020 ............................ 171 Appendix 3. Oregon’s Natural Areas .................................................................................................................. 173 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 deepest gorge in North America at Hells Canyon. And lastly, Oregon After 1979, the Oregon Natural Heritage Program is a floristic crossroads, with arctic boreal species (now the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center finding their southern