4.7 Blue Mountains Ecoregion

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1 4.7 Blue Mountains Ecoregion Description The Blue Mountains ecoregion occupies most of northeastern Oregon and encompasses three major ranges: the Ochoco, Blue, and Wallowa mountains. Deep, rocky-walled canyons, glacially cut gorges, dissected plateaus, and broad alluvial river valleys characterize the landscape. Extreme changes in elevation across the ecoregion create a broad range of temperature and precipitation, in turn supporting habitat diversity second only to the Klamath Mountains ecoregion (Figure 4.7-1). Sagebrush and grassland steppes dominate parts of the western and southern part of the region. The stands of western juniper on the southwestern and southern reaches are the largest and most diverse representation of this species in the world, found in over 30 plant communities. Ponderosa pine woodlands are characteristic at mid-elevations and mixed coniferous forests dominate at higher altitudes and north facing slopes at mid elevations. Extensive grasslands occur in and north of the Wallowa Mountains. The diversity in elevation, soils and climate yields diverse habitats and many endemic plant species. The Wallowa Mountains alone have more than 10 plants species found nowhere else. Elk and mule deer populations here are among the largest in the state. Riparian areas in valley bottoms are particularly important for aquatic and terrestrial organisms in arid landscapes where streamside vegetation provides shade and refuge. Riparian areas are among the most diverse natural communities in the region, largely concentrated in intermountain basins. These Figure Blue Mountains Ecoregion and Associated River Drainage Basins C h a p t e r I V E c o r e g i o n s 1 9 5

2 seasonally flooded wet meadows provide important habitat for migrating and breeding birds, including such sensitive species as sandhill cranes and upland sandpipers. The largest remaining blocks of these wetlands, almost all on private lands, are found at Big Summit Prairie, along the upper Silvies River, and in Bear and Logan valleys. Most of the region is thinly populated, with small towns in the major valleys and rural residents scattered throughout the smaller valleys among the mountains. Timber, ranching, and agriculture provide the foundations for the local economy in most areas. Due in part to declining supplies of federal timber, several mills in the region have closed and the unemployment rate here is the highest in the state (Figure 4.7-2). Current Condition The diversity of the Blue Mountains landscape provides goods and services long valued by the people of the region. Most of the uplands in the region are federally-owned forest and rangeland. Private land generally follows valleys and water courses, where most of the region s agriculture occurs. However, there are some large blocks and several small parcels of privately owned timber in the uplands. Ranchers first settled the area in the mid-1800s, cutting riparian woodlands and draining the wetlands of the Baker, Powder, and Grande Ronde valleys to create rich, irrigated agricultural fields. Today, these former wetlands support high value seed crops, hay, and alfalfa. Grazing began in the 1870s, and increased rapidly with huge herds of sheep and other livestock ranging across public grasslands and forests. Federal controls enacted in 1891 (Forest Reserves Act) and 1934 (Taylor Grazing Act) regulated grazing on public land. Timber harvest in the ecoregion began with the removal of the big old-growth pines, firs, and larches. For years, forest management on federal lands encouraged the conversion of old forests to young, and the suppression of fire. As a result, forests in the Blue Mountains today are younger and more densely growing than in the past. Recent changes in federal forest management encourages forest practices that more closely follow natural patterns of fire frequency and stand structure. Timber harvest continues, but at levels much reduced from the region s peak production. Commercial mining for gold and silver has all but ceased in the ecoregion, but several areas still bear the scars, including the meadows of upper Powder River near Sumpter. Today most of the mining is small-scale hobby mining in or along streams, which can compromise stream integrity and salmonid habitat. Many hobbyist have built summer cabins on their claims, particularly in the Granite area. Many of the goods and services of the Blue Mountains ecoregion have been produced by altering ecosystems and their natural processes. The large central valleys of the Grande Ronde, Powder, and John Day Rivers have had their native riparian forests, wetlands, and grasslands almost entirely converted to agriculture. Most of these stream reaches have been simplified by channelization and straightening. Upland riparian conditions have improved since the early and mid 1900s when mining and grazing were unregulated, but ripar- Figure Land Use/Land Cover by Owner for Blue Mountains Ecoregion O r e g o n S t a t e o f t h e E n v i r o n m e n t R e p o r t

3 Blue Mountains Demonstration Area Initiation of the Blue Mountains Demonstration Area (BMDA) can be traced to Governor John Kitzhaber, who challenged the Forest Service to undertake a large-scale demonstration project in eastern Oregon. After meeting with community leaders, mill owners, and national forest supervisors, he expressed concern that the Forest Service was not vigorously implementing ecosystem restoration projects as recommended by his panel on forest health and his citizen forestry advisory panel. As a result, the Forest Service proposed several national demonstration models for ecosystem restoration, with BMDA as the flagship of the effort. Because of the Governor s leadership, the BMDA has more state involvement than past projects concentrated on federal lands. The 3-million acre Blue Mountain Demonstration Area, encompassing much of the Grande Ronde watershed and Middle and North John Day watersheds, provides opportunities to compare two very different basins. The John Day basin, particularly in Grant County, has several mills on the verge of closing for lack of federal timber. Unemployment rates here are the highest in the state. Problems of forest health and endangered species have land managers spread thin. In contrast, the Grande Ronde basin has a very active watershed council and a long history of basinwide research from the Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute, OSU, and the Forest Service research laboratory in LaGrande. One challenge of the BMDA is integrating all the partnerships and ongoing planning initiatives in the area. Another challenge is reconciling the differences between producing lumber and undertaking ecosystem restoration activities that may yield no merchantable forest products in the short term. The purpose of the BMDA is to demonstrate how a government-led restoration program can converge with rural community economic goals. ian conditions remain degraded throughout the region, particularly in the middle and lower reaches of large river valleys such as the Grande Ronde, John Day, and Umatilla rivers. Past overgrazing has left the rangelands susceptible to weeds. Cheatgrass and other invasive annuals, adapted to quick reproduction on disturbed lands, have replaced native bunchgrasses in parts of the region and remain an important challenge to rehabilitation efforts. Floods can occur during spring following winters of heavy snow, or during sporadic intense summer convection storms. Such natural disturbances can have severe impacts in areas where vegetation is sparse or degraded. The combined effects of fire suppression and past logging and grazing practices have had profound impacts on the structure of the region s forests. The extent of ponderosa pine forests has declined and Douglas-fir invasion has replaced many upper elevation grand fir forests. Old-growth western juniper woodlands have declined in the southwestern edge of the region, but young juniper is rapidly invading many sagebrush steppe habitats at the western and southern edges of the region. Overstocked young forests are vulnerable to fires of enormous size, and insect outbreaks that have killed extensive stands further increased the fire danger. Along with these changes to forest structure come changes in forest habitat available to fish and wildlife. The dense overstories and lack of understories provide less food for herbivores, both wild and domestic. Species adapted to dense, canopied forests and dead wood are favored, but those adapted to open understory and savannas are not. Fish populations throughout the Blue Mountains ecoregion are declining over a wide spatial extent. Major problems include shrinking distributions and limited genetic composition of existing populations. Major factors related to declines are hydroelectric dams on the mainstem Columbia River, water withdrawal, irrigation dams, livestock grazing, timber harvest, and legacies of mining. Nonetheless, the Blue Mountains provide a principal stronghold for native salmon and trout in the Columbia basin. Extensive aquatic diversity and quality habitat remains protected in the high elevation wilderness areas of the region. Key resource issues Changes in landscape structure and function Four activities have had profound effects on the landscape of the region: timber harvest, fire suppression, grazing, and agriculture. Fire suppression, in concert with timber harvest, has changed the structure and function of the region s forests. In concert with removal of the oldest, biggest trees, fire suppression allowed a dense build-up of young trees, creating more biomass than could be supported through times of drought. Stress weakened the dense young forest and invited insects. Insects cause more mortality than fire, and are prominent in the landscape during times of drought. Heavy livestock grazing has also contributed to changes in the fire regime, with the removal of grasses that had historically carried frequent ground fires through the ecoregion s grasslands, shrub steppe, and woodlands. C h a p t e r I V E c o r e g i o n s 1 9 7

4 Socioeconomic Profile of the Blue Mountains Ecoregion The Blue Mountains region, for the purposes of this socioeconomic analysis, is composed of Baker, Grant, Union, and Wallowa counties. The four counties share some common economic traits, which include cattle production, lumber and wood products manufacturing, and other types of agricultural production. Nearly all of Grant County s manufacturing employment is lumber and wood products related, while the other three counties have experienced some diversification. There is little commuting among the counties due to the somewhat isolated nature of population centers. Only Baker and Union counties have direct access to an interstate highway (I-84). The region s rate of population growth was the lowest of any region in the state, averaging just 0.6 percent annually, and focused primarily in Union County. Similarly, unemployment trends in the Blue Mountains region do not compare favorably with state averages. The overall employment trend in the Blue Mountain region has been increasing, up 7.6 percent since 1990, but still much lower than the 25.5 percent statewide average. Given the area s retired population and dependence on seasonal industries such as lumber and agriculture, it is not surprising that unemployment rates in the Blue Mountains ecoregion are considerably higher than the state averages. Job losses in lumber and wood products manufacturing resulted in a net loss of 429 jobs (down 12.9 percent) for the region s manufacturing sector. Losses in federal government employment, primarily related to resource management agencies, totaled more than 400 of the region s jobs (down 29.1 percent). Among nonfarm industries, the region s growth was led by services, retail trade, and construction. Most other nonfarm industries experienced very little job growth over the 1990-to-1998 period. On a per capita basis, personal incomes in the Blue Mountains region measured below the state s average. Year-toyear changes in personal income, even when indexed for inflation, are highly volatile in the region, due largely to income in the farm sector. Farm proprietor s income was negative for five out of the past eight years. The last year in which the region s per capita personal income exceeded that for Oregon occurred in 1976, but has continued to lose ground relative to Oregon in nearly every year since In much of the ecoregion, livestock numbers are greatly reduced since the early 20 th century, and many upland areas have shown significant ecological recovery. Many riparian areas remain degraded, and ongoing practices have not allowed recovery. Virtually all of the Grande Ronde Valley s historical wetlands have been drained and converted to agriculture. Many wetland sites have been affected, at least temporarily, by water flow alterations and increased sediment and nutrients from agricultural and other activities. Streams have been channeled and straightened. Between La Grande and Elgin, the Grand Ronde River was five times longer before settlement than it is now see Chapter 3.4 Freshwater Wetlands and Chapter 3.5 Riparian Areas). Changes in biological communities structure and composition Loss of landscape structure and function often means loss of critical habitat for native species, such as the Columbian sharptailed grouse. This once common species was extirpated from Oregon following years of overhunting and habitat loss. Recent efforts at reintroduction appear promising, but success depends on restoring critical prairie habitat. Changes in the landscape of the Blue Mountains and beyond have jeopardized survival of the Snake River chinook salmon, whose fate has sparked discussions of dam removal in the lower Snake River. Other salmon and trout populations in the ecoregion are equally imperiled, including bull trout, a native resident species that has been listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Despite these problems, more than one-third of the Blue Mountains ecoregion is included within a complex of aquatic diversity areas identified by the American Fisheries Society. Much of this complex lies in federal wilderness areas, which make up almost seven percent of the land base in the ecoregion. Production of environmental goods and services In some parts of the ecoregion, changes in landscape structure and function has allowed agricultural production of commodities such as cattle, hay, grains, and peppermint. Through O r e g o n S t a t e o f t h e E n v i r o n m e n t R e p o r t

5 land conversion and water diversion, low lying wetlands and riparian areas have been converted to high quality agricultural land. Streams have been diverted or impounded in order to store water for continued use through the extended dry growing season in this arid region. Timber production from the federal forests, the dominant forest owner in the ecoregion, has declined in recent years, placing added pressure on private lands to meet mill demands for wood. Likely future timber harvest from federal lands will be from smaller, less valuable trees than in the past. It has been difficult for loggers and mill owners to make the investments in equipment required for low impact logging and the processing of small material. Efforts have been made to develop new products from smaller-size logs that are harvested from federal restoration projects, but their economic feasibility is highly market-dependent. Regional resource planning and regulatory compliance The Blue Mountains ecoregion was arguably the birthplace of current forest health debates, and has since become the site of many studies and initiatives. Much work on the issue was developed at the Blue Mountain Natural Resources Institute, which has recently closed after ten years of operation. Questions of forest health led to Governor Kitzhaber s Eastside Forestry Advisory Panel and to the much larger Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project. Several watershed councils in the ecoregion work toward achieving conservation goals embodied in the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, and three county governments are actively involved with federal partners in natural resource management and planning. Federal lands are now managed under a set of interim policies, that elevate protection of biodiversity to the primary goal for federal land management. Final plans for these lands await adoption of a comphrensive plan for all federal lands in the interior Columbia Basin. Part of the ecoregion recently has been designated as the Blue Mountains Demonstration Area (see sidebar). In coordination with regional planning efforts, complex plans for total maximum daily loads of non-point sources of pollution are being developed for stream segments with limited water quality identified by the Clean Water Act 303(d) list. Many of the low-lying streams in this ecoregion are listed, primarily for high stream temperatures during summer. Strengths and threats Trends suggest we are far from our reference conditions in many key resource systems. However, because federal ownership dominates the region, federal management initiatives to restore natural structure and function may have a chance to make a difference to the future landscape condition. Several new plans for restoration and ecosystem management at various scales have been initiated in this region. Beyond the reach of traditional resource production, the highest elevations of the region have extensive wilderness areas protecting alpine habitats, montane forests, and headwater streams. In general, the higher the mountains, the better the water, and the Blue Mountains ecoregion is no exception. Upland water quality is relatively good, and condition of upstream fish habitats is improving. The John Day River system is particularly valuable as a stronghold for aquatic diversity because it is one of few major Columbian tributaries where the genetic integrity of native fish is not compromised by introductions of hatchery salmonids. In the lowlands, the state s Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area, the last 400-acre remnant of the Grande Ronde Valley s historic natural marshes and several hundred acres of restored wetlands, attracts large numbers of migrating birds and supports several rare and endangered plant species. Concerns over threatened fish stocks will likely dominate land use policy in the ecoregion for the foreseeable future. Proposals for dealing comprehensively with this issue abound, many revolve around the highly innovative state plan for conserving salmon and watersheds. This plan relies heavily on a voluntary conservation effort on private lands to complement plans for federal and state plans. A significant portion of the live forest on federal land in this ecoregion is still under stress because stands are too dense, especially the true fir/douglas-fir understories beneath pines and larch, which increases the likelihood of future mortality in both the understory and overstory. Forests at highest risk are primarily in the ponderosa pine and the drier mixed conifer types. While this risk can be lowered by reducing the density and fuel loadings of smaller trees, such practices are limited by controversies over possible impact on fish habitat and low revenues from the timber that will be harvested under these practices. Improving the health of streams and watersheds inevitably involves the lands where people farm, ranch, and live along the river bottoms and the lower stretches of all river basins. As with many ecoregions in Oregon, these lands hold the key to solving many of the ecological problems identified in this section including recovery of threatened fish stocks. Conclusion Concerns over the health of forests, streams, and watersheds in the Blue Mountains have led to a new management approach still being developed on federal lands. Improvements in the health of these environments will require the participation of the entire Blue Mountains community in partnerships that are now being forged. C h a p t e r I V E c o r e g i o n s 1 9 9