Steens Mountain is a major horst block near the northern terminus of the Basin and Range geomorphic province of southeastern Oregon. A section of Miocene volcanic rocks totaling 5000 feet in thickness are exposed in a fault escarpment on the eastern side of Steens Nountain. These include: the Pike Creek...
Fire suppression in high-elevation sagebrush steppe over the last century has
profoundly influenced the structure and complexity of vegetation communities.
Although fire is the primary management tool used to restore these areas, the impact
of this management practice on associated avian communities is poorly understood.
We examined patterns of habitat...
Since European American settlement of the Intermountain Region, dramatic changes in vegetation composition and structure have occurred in the sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis spp. occidentalis Vasek), although indigenous to the Intermountain Region, has increased since the late 1800s. Considerable work has been done documenting juniper woodland expansion...
Understanding the effects of habitat disturbance on a species' habitat selection patterns, and demographic rates, is essential to projecting the trajectories of populations affected by disturbance, as well as for determining the appropriate conservation actions needed to maintain those populations. Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a species of conservation concern...
With declining populations and low calf recruitment in northeastern Oregon, much interest has been generated to study the survival rates and causes of mortality of Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni). I investigated the causes of elk calf mortality and the effects of predation risk on birth-site selection by cow...