The Oregon high desert is the US Oregon state area located east of the Cascade Mountains and in the southern Blue Mountains, in the central and eastern parts of the state. Divided into the southern and northern regions, the desert covers most of the five Oregon counties and averages 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level. The southwestern region is part of the Great Basin and the southeastern part is the basin of the lower Owyhee River. The northern region is part of the Columbian Plateau, where higher levels of rainfall allow the largest industry on private land to become the cultivation of alfalfa and straw. The public land in the area is owned primarily by the Land Management Bureau, which manages over 30,000 square miles (78,000 km 2 ) including five rivers defined as Wild and Beautiful.
While the tall desert is rather dry, it is only relatively dry against Western Oregon. This area averages 15 inches (380 mm) of annual rainfall; The Alvord desert, however, only receives 7 inches (180 mm) of rain every year. Contrary to its name, most of the high deserts are not dry enough to actually qualify as deserts, and biologically, most of these areas are classified as scrub or meadow.
At 9,733 feet (2,967 m) above sea level, the peak of Mount Steens is the highest point in the high desert. A large caesarean is a characteristic basin and tectonic plate of desert highlands. About 16 million years ago, during the early Miocene epoch, lava flows from volcanic eruptions covered about half the surface area of ​​Oregon. The Earth's crust then began to stretch, giving way to further volcanic activity from 15 million to 2 million years ago. Some of the ice age during this time formed a large lake in the high desert.
High desert climate provides habitat for mammals such as pronghorn, coyote, mule donkey, black-tailed bunny rabbit, and cheerful tante. Common birds in the area include smart-twists, California quails, and elephant hawks. The western juniper is the most common tree in the area, and the large bushes and common woolen sunflowers are the most extensive plants in the area.
Video High Desert (Oregon)
Geography
The high Oregon desert lies in the central and southeastern states. It covers about 24,000 square miles (62,000 km 2 ), extending about 200 miles (320 km) from central eastern Oregon to the Idaho border and 130 miles (210 km) from south central Oregon to the adjacent Nevada. Much of this area lies in the districts of Crook, Deschutes, Harney, Lake, and Malheur.
This high desert is named so because its height is generally high, averaging about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) across the region. It borders the foothills east of the Cascade Mountains to the west. The Blue Mountains is the geographical boundary in the north, marking the northern tip of the highland semi-dry plateau. The southern southern desert is part of the Basin and Mountain Province of North America, which runs south through Nevada and Arizona and into Mexico. It contains a large alkaline lake and high cliffs, some with advantages over 2,000 feet (610 m). Steens Mountain, in Harney County, is the highest point in the region; its peak is 9,733 feet (2967 m) above sea level. To the east, the desert plateau in the Columbia Plateau extends across the Snake River and into Idaho.
A number of rivers flow through the high desert area. These include the Deschutes River and its tributaries, the Crooked River, and the Malheur, Owyhee and John Day rivers, all within the Columbia River watershed. Because the high desert includes parts of the Great Basin hydrography located in Oregon, the smaller rivers in the highlands are flowing into a closed basin. The Chewaucan River, the Donner River and Blitzen, and the Silvi River each flow to some of the high desert salt lakes.
Land use
The largest landowner in eastern Oregon is the US government. The Land Management Bureau manages more than 13.6 million hectares (55,000 km 2 ) at Bara bakar, Lakeview, Prineville and Vale fires, most of which are in the state high desert state. In addition, Congress has set out specific sections of the Bengkok River, Deschutes, Donner und Blitzen, Malheur, and Owyhee as part of the National Wild River and Unit System.
Agriculture is the largest industry in the region. Livestock farms use private land and government land to graze. Farmers keep cattle and sheep in many areas. Due to low rainfall, most plants require irrigation. Agricultural crops include alfalfa and other straw plants, wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, onions, sugar beets, and mint.
Maps High Desert (Oregon)
Geology
Between 17 and 15 million years ago, the magma from far below eastern Oregon rose to the surface of the earth, causing a period of significant volcanic activity. A series of lava floods erupted from a gap near the Oregon-Idaho-Washington border. The resulting lava flow travels up to 400 miles (640 km) from its source. Some individual streams cover up to 10,000 square miles (26,000 km 2 ) to a depth of 100 feet (30 m). Finally, this lava flow covers half the state of Oregon, creating a formation known as the Columbia River Basalt Group, a geological foundation under many high deserts.
After the original eruption subsided, the earth's crust began to stretch and crack. Between 15 and 2 million years ago, it created hundreds of new volcanoes that added an extra layer of lava over the Columbia Basalt River and left hundreds of lava tubes. These new streams blanket the southeastern part of the state. Many smaller volcanoes and cinder volcanoes from this period still exist in eastern Oregon. After that, subsequent rifting generates many mountains with disruptions across the region. These high slope mountains and valleys made by these fractures produce basins and landscapes that make up most of Oregon's high desert states.
Over the last 2 million years, a series of ice ages have changed the landscape. As each layer of ice melts, runoff and increased rainfall fill many of the closed basins in the area, forming large lakes. The Swan Lake, Harney, and Klamath basin are filled with many other small basins. Some lakes are covered up to 1,000 square miles (2,600 km 2 ). However, as the climate becomes drier, the larger lake is further away. Swan Lake, Lake Harney, Lake Malheur, Lake Summer, Lake Abert, and Lake Warner are remnants of ancient lakes.
Climate
Annual rainfall across the high Oregon desert region is relatively low, averaging less than 15 inches (380 mm) per year in most areas. Bend, the region's largest city, receives only 12 inches (300 mm) of rainfall per year. Burns receive about 11 inches (280 mm) of rainfall each year, while Rome, in the center of Malheur County, and the official weather station at Whitehorse Ranch in southern Harney County receive only 8 inches (200 mm) in an average year. Some mountainous areas, however, receive significantly more precipitation as snowfall. For example, the town of Lakeview with its high altitude has an average annual snowfall of nearly 68 inches (1,700 mm).
Most of the high desert areas receive the deepest rainfall in winter, declining steadily through late summer to autumn. Some areas in the eastern and southern parts of this region receive peak precipitation in late spring and early summer. For example, in Hart Mountain in Lake County, the wettest time of the year is March to June. The driest months across the high Oregon desert are July through September, though there are still isolated lightning bolts during that period.
History
Original and white settlement
The original inhabitants of the high desert area are the people of North Paiute. These Native Americans used to be semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who rely on nuts, roots, grains, berries, eggs and animals such as deer, pronghorn, goose, quail, rabbit, and bear, following their food to high and low altitudes depending on year-round. They make sandals, traps, and fishing nets, and weave baskets. Made of shrubs, willow, tulle plant, Indian flax, and sumac fiber, the basket is tight enough to carry water. Archaeological evidence from nearby Fort Rock has shown that people weave baskets in the area at least 9,000 years ago.
Throughout the 18th century and into the early 19th century, North Paiute has many conflicts with tribes living in the northwest. The Wasco-Wishram and other Chinook tribes often penetrate the high desert landscape in the North Paiute region. After one such incident in 1811, North Paiute migrated north to the Columbia River and attacked Wasco canoe. Around this time, North Paiute totaled about 7,500. The War of Snakes, a war between indigenous and white settlers in the region in the 1860s, killed about two-thirds of the population of North Paiute. The whites won the war and then ruled out Malheur Reserves for North Paiute and other Oregon Native American tribes.
White settlers traveling to Oregon along the Oregon Trail began living in the high desert areas of the 1850s and 1860s after they began farming and entering the Willamette Valley and other areas of western Oregon. Thousands of emigrants reached the area from the west, crossing the Cascade Range to make land claims in eastern Oregon. The high desert area was inhabited by white people later from western Oregon partly due to the failure of Elia White to find an east pass through the Cascades. Once they claim more land, pioneers and members of the American government negotiate agreements with indigenous peoples in high deserts and elsewhere in Oregon, often forcing them to leave their homeland and to the place of reservation.
In 1866, American soldiers set up Camp Warner, a military camp near Hart Antelope National Park in Lake County. They were sent from Boise, Idaho, to build a military camp in the high desert, and they built it east of Warner Lakes because they doubted that they could cross a series of wetlands. Major General George Crook disagreed with the decision of the soldiers. He built a road across the lake and moved the camp to their western side.
Of the four great desert towns, Prineville was the earliest founded. The post office originally opened under the name "Prine" in 1871. Named for Barney Prine, a whiskey and metal trader in the area. The Lakeview post office was later established in 1876. At that time, Lake Swan was larger, and it was visible from the post office. The Burns post office opened in 1884 and the city was founded in 1891. Named for the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. The name Bend comes from the phrase "Farewell Bend," the location where the pioneers who traveled through the area last seen the Deschutes River. The Bend post office was established in 1904.
In 1878, the Bannocks and the northern Shoshone tribes participated in the Bannock War, a war against white settlers in the region for the destruction of camas roots - the main source of food for indigenous people - by white settler pigs. Bannock and North Paiute suffered violence during the conflict, and once the white settlers had won the war, the indigenous people were given various reservations. North Paiute is sent to Indian Reservation Yakama and in later years has spread across several reservations in the western United States.
The white settlers created the 13,536 hectare (5,559 hectare) Fireplace Reservoir, north of Burns, in 1897. The reservation was founded in 1972. It is home to the descendants of the Wada Tika band from North Paiutes. In 1992, it had 356 members. In 1980, there were 57 descendants of the North Paiute tribe living outside the reservation.
Place name
In the 19th century, the high desert region of Oregon was called the Great Sand Desert (an irony, since there was little sand in this region), Rolling Sage Plain , and Artemisia Desert . Over the years, the region is also known as Oregon's Empty Quarter, Great Wide Open, and Oregon's Cowboy Country. Today, many locals call it Oregon Outback . However, old names are sometimes still used. A 1996 National Geographic magazine named "The Physical Coast Landscape of the United States" uses the pioneer name, Great Sandy Desert, to identify southeastern Oregon. However, this region is best known as "High Desert" Oregon. "High Desert" is the official name for the plains in Deschutes County, as recognized by the United States Council on Geographical Names. The name variants for the high desert are the "Great Sand Desert" and "Rolling Launcher".
Flora and fauna
The Oregon Badlands Wilderness, 15 miles (24 km) east of Bend, has a distinctive vegetation from the high desert region. The original plants are adapted to survive with rainfall of less than 12 inches (300 mm) per year. The area is dominated by large bushes and rabbitbrush along with loud grasses like Idaho fescue, bluebunch wheatgrass, and bunchgrass. In the spring, there are native wildflowers such as Oregon orange sunshine, dwarf purple dwarf monkeys, brimstone soba, Indian brushes, and mariposa lilies. Other high desert wildflowers are common throughout the region including buttercups, larkspur, phlox, roses, and coral mallows. The Oregon Badlands Wilderness also contains the oldest tree in Oregon, an estimated western juniper more than 1,600 years old.
Hundreds of animal species are found in the high desert environments of Oregon. At Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge alone, there are over 300, including 239 species of birds and 42 mammals. Throughout the high desert region, deer mules, pronghorns, coyotes, American badgers, and black-tailed jackababs are common. Deer, bighorn sheep, cougars, bobcats, gray fox, red fox, North American porcupine and North American otters are also found in some high desert sections.
Smaller mammals that originate from this area include long-tailed civets, woodchucks, cottontail rabbits, dwarf rabbits, gold-plated squirrels, antelope squirrels, Townsend ground squirrels, yellow pine squirrels, Ord kangaroo rats, and northern pocket gophers. Rat species include Great Basin pocket rats, northern grass rats, western mice, deer mice, prairie mice, and creeping mice. There are also many species of bats that live in the high Oregon desert state.
Common high desert birds include sage-grouse, quail, and sage thrasher. Near the high desert lakes and riparian areas, there are American blackflies, yellow warbler, orange crowned warbler, children, horned owls, blackbird Brewers, western meadowlarks, swallows, and nighthawk. Mountain grips, Cassin finches, black-headed gosbeak, green-tailed sharks, yellow-rumping warblers, MacGillivray's warblers, mountain bluebirds, common crows, northern flicker, and white-headed woodpeckers are common in some parts of the region. Birds of prey include owls, hawks, hawk eagles, golden eagles, and bald eagles.
See also
- The Colombian Plateau
- Basin and North Range (ecoregion)
References
The work cited
External links
- High Desert Museum
- Oregon Public Broadcasting Program in Oregon Reub Long Desert
- Oregon Public Broadcasting Program at Abert Lake
- Oregon Public Broadcasting Program in the Plant Desert
- Oregon Desert Heritage Association
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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