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Montane meadows
photo: D. DellaSala |
Geography
The Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion stretches over 10 million acres and is bounded by several other ecoregions that together make up the larger Cascadia bioregion. These include the Northern California Redwoods to the west, the Sierra Nevada Conifer Forests located southeast of the region, the Cascades to the east, and the Central Pacific Coastal Forests to the northwest.
The Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion includes four mountain ranges - the Siskiyous, Marbles, Trinity Alps, and Yolla Bollys - and more than a dozen major drainages less than 150 miles long. The major coastal drainages within the ecoregion from south to north include: the Eel, Mad, Klamath (Trinity, Salmon, Scott, and Shasta), Smith, Rogue, Coquille, and Umpqua (central portion) Rivers. The source of the Rogue, Umpqua, and Klamath Rivers - Crater Lake - is not considered part of the ecoregion, nor is the Upper Klamath Basin.
Forests
The diversity of forest communities in the Klamath-Siskiyou is among the highest in North America north of Mexico. The region is home to more than 3,500 plant species, of which 281 are endemic - that is, they exist nowhere else on Earth. This high degree of endemism stems, in part, from the complexity of habitats and the presence of serpentine soils, which are renowned for harboring plant species that are highly specialized to the soil's naturally toxic conditions. One of these is the insect-eating cobra lily.
More species of conifers are found in the Klamath-Siskiyou than anywhere else north of Mexico. The 30 species of conifer that have been recorded include several species of pine and fir that live for hundreds of years. Seventeen conifer species have been found in one valley within a single square mile. Ancient tree species found nowhere else on Earth include the Brewer spruce and Port Orford cedar, both survivors of the ice age.
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Northern pygmy owls
photo: Cornell Lab of Ornithology |
Wildlife
Several animal species inhabiting the region are threatened with extinction, including the northern spotted owl, one of the most visible symbols of conservation in North America. Other species of note in these forests include the bald eagle, the marbled murrelet, the northern goshawk, several species of Pacific salmon, the tailed frog, and various carnivores like the Pacific fisher, pine marten, mountain lion, and wolverine.
The Rogue and Trinity Rivers are among those that give the Klamath-Siskiyou the largest concentration of Wild and Scenic rivers in the United States. In these rivers are four imperiled fish species: the Lost River sucker, the shortnose sucker, the northern California coho salmon, and the steelhead trout. Overfishing has threatened the south coastal Oregon Chinook salmon, and the Miller Lake lamprey is probably extinct. Numerous rare snails and freshwater mussels, some of which are found only in individual springs and pools, make the region one of the Western Hemisphere's most diverse in terms of mollusks.
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