Some natural communities and landscape features are not adequately represented through Strategy Habitats. These communities and features often occur at the local scale and have a patchy distribution across the landscape. They may be difficult to map from satellite data and may not be represented well in those datasets. Some communities are highly specialized to the local environment and host a suite of rare or endemic species. To address the conservation needs of these communities and their associated species, “local and specialized habitats” were determined through review of geographic vegetation data, rare plant or animal occurrences, importance to Strategy Species, and occurrences of animal concentrations, such as migrating or wintering birds.
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Alpine Habitats: Meadows, Dwarf Shrublands, Alpine Tundra, and White Bark Pine
- Ecoregions
- BM, EC, KM, NBR, WC
- Comments
- Alpine habitats provide important foraging and breeding areas for many mammals and birds as well as critical resources for birds during migration periods. They are especially at risk as the climate changes and as recreational demand increases. Alpine habitats provide important resources for many at-risk species, such as white bark pine that is particularly vulnerable to white pine blister rust, outbreaks of mountain pine beetles, and fire suppression resulting in replacement by more shade-tolerant tree species.
- Conservation Actions
- Support efforts to address climate change and to provide refugia for fish and wildlife. Manage recreation, human disturbance, and domestic sheep grazing to minimize impacts to plant communities. Monitor and control invasive plants. Re-introduce fire into the ecosystem as feasible and appropriate to the local area.
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Aquatic Vegetation Beds
- Ecoregions
- All
- Comments
- Habitat for invertebrates that are the base of the aquatic food chain
- Conservation Actions
- Retain and restore natural water flow regimes. Control invasive plants such as reed-canary grass. See Flowing Water and Riparian Habitat.
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Ash Flows and Ash Beds
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Balds and Bluffs
- Ecoregions
- BM, CR, EC, KM, WC, WV
- Comments
- Habitat for unique plant communities and invertebrates such as butterflies. In the Coast Range ecoregion, includes coastal bluffs and headlands. In the Klamath Mountains ecoregion, includes serpentine barrens and outcrops.
- Conservation Actions
- Control encroaching conifers and shrubs at priority sites. Monitor for and control key invasive plants at priority sites. In serpentine barrens, minimize disturbance (e.g., trail or road construction) to rare plant communities.
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Bays
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Bitterbrush Communities
- Ecoregions
- BM, EC, NBR
- Comments
- Bitterbrush is an important habitat component that provides forage, cover, and nesting habitat for a variety of wildlife. In the Northern Basin and Range ecoregion, bitterbrush is found in canyons, often in areas with more moisture, in a mosaic with sagebrush and rabbitbrush.
- Conservation Actions
- Continue restoration efforts. Improve understanding of bitterbrush regeneration methods.
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Canyon Shrublands
- Ecoregions
- BM, CP, EC, NBR
- Comments
- Also known as moist deciduous shrublands, these areas provide nesting habitat for songbirds, and winter habitat for Sharp-tailed Grouse.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain healthy stands and restore degraded stands. Some degraded stands can benefit from prescribed fire, removal of encroaching invasive junipers, or management of grazing season timing.
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Caves and Old Mines
- Ecoregions
- BM, CR, EC, KM, NBR, WC
- Comments
- Habitat for rare invertebrates and cave-roosting bats, such as Townsend’s big-eared bat and several Myotis species. In the East Cascades ecoregion, includes lava tubes.
- Conservation Actions
- Use gates or seasonal closures to protect known roost sites from recreational caving and other disturbance. When mines are closed for human safety, provide for bat entry and exit.
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Chaparral and Ceanothus Shrubland
- Ecoregions
- BM, CR, KM, WC, WV
- Comments
- Nesting and foraging habitat for songbirds. Important for kingsnakes, some butterflies, and other invertebrates. May occur in early successional habitats or at high elevations, where temperatures and other factors inhibit tree growth. In the Klamath Mountains ecoregion, it is often removed as a fire hazard. It is increasingly removed with development, particularly in lowland valleys. Where not removed, often it becomes senescent without the fires needed for regeneration. Unusual habitat in the Willamette Valley, which makes existing sites important for local diversity.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain shrub diversity during forest management activities. Delay replanting with conifers where shrub habitat is limited. Control key invasive plants (e.g., Scotch broom and Armenian (Himalayan) blackberry) at priority sites.
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Eelgrass Beds
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Fen Peatlands
- Ecoregions
- BM, EC, WC
- Comments
- Fens are peat-accumulating wetlands that form where groundwater discharge is low but constant, and where appropriate geologic conditions occur, such as glacial plus pumice deposits. Fens provide habitat for sensitive plant species and provide long-term carbon storage in the form of peat. They are highly sensitive to climate change, which may reverse the process of peat accretion and lead to carbon loss.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain groundwater recharge areas, especially at higher elevations. Use conservation incentives, and where applicable, maintain existing protection standards to provide buffers around fen area. Seek opportunities to enhance recharge from local aquifers supporting the fens.
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Forest Openings
- Ecoregions
- CR, EC, WC
- Comments
- Forest openings provide essential structural complexity and plant diversity. These structures provide foraging and nesting habitat for Olive-sided Flycatchers, Willow Flycatchers, and Common Nighthawks. Open areas with snags are important for Purple Martins and Western Bluebirds. Clouded salamanders live in large logs and stumps in openings, and their populations increase following wildfires. Disturbances, such as wildfire, disease, and insect outbreaks, reset succession and often result in large or small openings with high forb and shrub diversity and structure (e.g., large snags and logs). With management emphasis on older successional stages on public land and more intensive management of private forestlands, openings with structural complexity and plant diversity are now rare. This has resulted in a loss of nesting and foraging habitat for some songbirds.
- Conservation Actions
- During salvage logging or other timber harvest, minimize ground disturbance, and maintain and create snags and downed logs. Look for opportunities to create forest openings and maintain natural forb, grass, and shrub species. Openings of 5 acres or greater provide the most benefit to songbirds and other wildlife. Control key invasive plants in openings. After burns, reseed with native grasses and forbs, and delay replanting with conifers. Carefully evaluate salvage logging in burned late successional forests.
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Unique Grassland Habitats
- Ecoregions
- EC, NBR
- Comments
- Includes alkali grasslands, perennial bunchgrass, and montane grasslands. Important for raptors, grassland birds, and rare plants.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain and restore these features using site-appropriate tools. Monitor for invasive species. Manage grazing to minimize impacts to native species.
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Greasewood Flats and Washes
- Ecoregions
- BM, CP, EC
- Comments
- Typically found in flats, washes, and terraces with saline soils and shallow water tables. They flood intermittently, but remain dry for most growing seasons, and provide habitat for rare plants. High estimated habitat loss in the Blue Mountains ecoregion but still common in Baker and Grande Ronde Valleys. Very high estimated loss in Columbia Plateau (greater than 96 percent) and East Cascades (greater than 9 percent) ecoregions.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain and restore greasewood habitats. In Blue Mountains, include black greasewood habitats when managing for a mosaic of valley bottom habitats.
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Inland Dunes
- Ecoregions
- CR
- Comments
- Includes unvegetated to moderately vegetated (10-30 percent plant cover), active, and stabilized dunes. Habitat for reptiles, small mammals, and rare plants.
- Conservation Actions
- This habitat type currently has few limiting factors but could be impacted by uncontrolled off-highway vehicle use in the future. Monitor priority sites.
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Inter-dunal Lakes and Wetlands
- Ecoregions
- CR
- Comments
- Shallow lakes and wetlands located in areas between coastal sand dunes. These habitats are outcroppings of the water table, so water levels are controlled by hydrology of the unconfined sand dune aquifers which are recharged by local precipitation. These wetlands support breeding habitat for Strategy Species, including northern red-legged frogs and wetland plant communities.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain groundwater recharge areas at sand dune aquifers. Protect from off-road vehicle use and other impacts.
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Intertidal Mudflats
- Ecoregions
- CR, NS
- Comments
- Foraging habitat for shorebirds; critically important during migration. Habitat for invertebrates such as clams.
- Conservation Actions
- Manage water flows to maintain mudflat habitats. Maintain or restore water quality and natural sedimentation patterns to maintain habitat quality for invertebrates. See Estuaries.
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Mountain Mahogany Woodland and Shrubland
- Ecoregions
- BM, EC, NBR
- Comments
- Mountain mahogany communities may spread with fire suppression but depend on fire for long-term maintenance. Expanding in some areas but lacking regeneration in others. Threatened by juniper encroachment in some areas, especially in Northern Basin and Range. Many stands have non-native understory vegetation. In East Cascades ecoregion, mountain mahogany is more diverse than other ecoregions. Here, it includes birchleaf mountain mahogany, which covers moist shrublands in the southern portion of the ecoregion. Mountain mahogany is important nesting habitat for birds because it provides tree structure in open shrub-dominated landscapes.
- Conservation Actions
- Develop methods to manage mahogany stands and encourage regeneration. Restore understory vegetation at priority sites.
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Off-channel Habitat
- Ecoregions
- All inland ecoregions
- Comments
- Provides critical habitat for juvenile salmonids and other fish, northwestern pond turtles, freshwater mussels, dragonflies, and other invertebrates.
- Conservation Actions
- Raise awareness so that activities can be managed for minimal impact. Maintain current off-channel habitat and restore, where possible. Maintain or restore stream hydrology. Manage beaver populations to provide for beaver-created habitats, while minimizing conflicts with other land uses. See Flowing Water and Riparian Habitat.
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Off-shore Rocks (e.g., Sea Stacks)
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Port-Orford Cedar Forests
- Ecoregions
- KM
- Comments
- Endemic to Klamath Mountains; associated with serpentine soils and characterized by unusual plant and animal associations. Severely impacted by the invasive Port-Orford root-rot, particularly near the coast.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain existing habitat. Minimize vehicular traffic and/or new road construction where potential exists to spread the invasive root pathogen.
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Rock Habitats: Cliffs, Rimrock, Rock Outcrops, and Talus
- Ecoregions
- BM, CR, CP, EC, KM, NBR, WC, WV
- Comments
- Habitat for Peregrine Falcons and other cliff-nesting birds, cliff-roosting bats, rare plants, and wildlife that use rocks for shelter and/or foraging areas. Talus is habitat for Larch Mountain salamander, pika, and unusual invertebrates. In the Willamette Valley, hibernacula for snakes, including western rattlesnakes. In dry ecoregions, rock habitats are particularly important for salamanders as a refuge from hot, dry weather.
- Conservation Actions
- These habitats have few limiting factors in most ecoregions. In the East Cascades, residential development at the edge of rims alters vegetation and disturbs nesting birds. Work with local planners to implement existing setback distance standards. Rock mining should be avoided in talus areas where known populations of Larch Mountain salamander and rare invertebrates occur. For all ecoregions, if important roosts or nest sites are known, minimize disturbance (such as rock climbing) during the breeding season.
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Rocky Shore and Tidepools
- Ecoregions
- CR, NS
- Comments
- Rocky shores are habitat for marine invertebrates and shorebirds, such as Black Oystercatcher, Rock Sandpiper, and Surfbird. Tidepools are habitat for marine invertebrates and fish.
- Conservation Actions
- Minimize disturbance during shorebird nesting season. Work with local communities and land management agencies to minimize impacts from tidepool viewing.
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Salt Desert Scrub
- Ecoregions
- NBR
- Comments
- This low-to-medium shrub habitat can be found on dry sites with saline soils, such as dry lake beds, flat desert pavements, low alkaline dunes, around playas, or on gentle slopes above playas. It provides habitat for kit fox and suits reptile and small mammal species that are primarily or exclusively associated with this habitat.
- Conservation Actions
- Cheatgrass invasion and increasing surface fuel accumulation are problems at some locations. Microbiotic soil crusts are particularly critical in these habitats, so it is important to minimize activities that cause soil disturbance.
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Sand Spits, Sand Bars, and Sparsely Vegetated Islands
- Ecoregions
- CR, EC, NBR, NS
- Comments
- Sparsely vegetated sandy habitats that are isolated from disturbance due to humans and mammalian predators are important roosting and nesting sites for colonial waterbirds, such as American White Pelicans, Brown Pelicans, and Caspian Terns. In eastern Oregon, this habitat occurs around large lakes and wetlands. Sparsely vegetated island habitat can be surrounded by either saltwater or freshwater.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain open habitat characteristics and minimize disturbance at key sites.
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Springs, Seeps, and Headwaters
- Ecoregions
- All inland ecoregions
- Comments
- Habitat for amphibians, invertebrates, and rare plants. The isolated nature of springs is one of the factors resulting in high levels of invertebrate endemism in the East Cascades. In dry ecoregions, spring and seep habitats are important as a source of water for wildlife and as habitat for amphibians and invertebrates. These habitats have been impacted by livestock watering and agricultural uses.
- Conservation Actions
- Use incentives, and where applicable, maintain existing protection standards to provide buffers around springs, seeps, and stream headwaters during forest management and road building activities. Maintain groundwater recharge areas. Use open-bottomed culverts or bridges when building roads or upgrading culverts to allow fish and amphibian passage. In dry ecoregions, use cooperative incentive programs to fence spring heads, which provides benefits to wildlife but allows water to be available for other uses.
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Spring-fed Streams
- Ecoregions
- BM, EC, KM, WC, WV
- Comments
- Streams dominated by groundwater rather than surface runoff have nearly constant discharge, low water temperatures, and distinct geomorphologic characteristics, such as few or no gravel bars and wood which remains in the channel. These streams support cool-water species such as bull trout and may provide refugia for other temperature-limited species.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain groundwater recharge areas, especially at higher elevations. Maintain and restore natural water flow regimes. Maintain supporting aquifers.
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Western Juniper Savanna with Mature Trees; Late Successional Western Juniper Woodlands
- Ecoregions
- BM, CP, EC, NBR
- Comments
- Western juniper savanna consists of scattered, often large, juniper trees within shrub-steppe. Late successional juniper woodlands may have a higher density of trees but are characterized by large-diameter trees. These juniper habitats are important for songbirds and raptors. In the Columbia Plateau ecoregion, the remaining Ferruginous Hawk nest sites are primarily juniper trees.
- Currently, about 3-5 percent of Oregon’s juniper woodland is considered late successional. A high percentage of old-growth juniper in Central Oregon near Bend, Redmond, and Madras has been lost. Remaining stands are highly fragmented and are threatened by encroaching small junipers. In contrast, recruitment of juniper in sandy shrub-steppe of the Columbia Plateau is naturally poor, so young juniper trees are not replacing older ones lost to cutting or natural death.
- Conservation Actions
- Remove small-diameter encroaching juniper trees while maintaining larger diameter junipers and connectivity of juniper patches. Reintroduce fire where practical. Need better spatial data on distribution of mature juniper savanna. In the Columbia Plateau, maintain existing large juniper trees and examine factors affecting tree recruitment. Research is underway to determine the age, composition, structure, and wildlife usage of old growth juniper woodlands (for more information, see the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center website).
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Western Larch Forest and Woodland
- Ecoregions
- BM, EC
- Comments
- Occurs on cool, moist sites interspersed with ponderosa pine habitats; may have been much more common historically in the Blue Mountains ecoregion.
- Conservation Actions
- Maintain large-diameter larch trees and patches of larch forest to provide local diversity. Control key invasive plants.