Blue Mountains Ecoregion

The Blue Mountains ecoregion is a historically large ecosystem spanning the southern border of Washington, the western portion of Idaho, and a large swath of the state of Oregon. This diverse ecosystem includes everything from low-lying desert grasslands to alpine highlands, transitioning between the two with sweeping grasslands and stands of pine forest. This ecoregion is indicative of the historical state of the Pacific Northwest, containing stands of old-growth Ponderosa Pine forest and large, iconic North American fauna including the bald eagle, bighorn sheep, and elk (with the interior Hell’s Canyon reported to maintain the largest remaining herd in the United States).
Human impact on the Blue mountains has been primarily focused on the use of the Blue Mountains as an area for grazing cattle and for logging, and much like most of the Pacific Northwest the Blue Mountains are vulnerable to over-use of the forest and grasslands ecosystems. The forests themselves are reported to show depletion of up to 90% of the original old-growth pine, and the grassland watersheds have suffered degradation from unregulated cattle migration and over-grazing, though efforts by the USGS and the national parks service have mitigated this effect.

Current efforts in the region fall under the blanket efforts to protect the area’s endangered species, including but not limited to the American Bald Eagle. Whereas many efforts to protect endangered species disappear into the anonymity of hard-to-recognize specimens, Bald Eagle preservation is a highly visible and useful tool for the preservation effort. Current efforts focus on mitigating the effect of forest fragmentation, as the remaining stand of old-growth pine forest have been divided by past logging efforts and lack the integrity inherent in contiguous old-growth forests. Water management has become key to the preservation and health of the region as a combination of past fire mis-management and a lack of grazing and logging control has resulted in damage to the Bue Mountain watershed and difficulty allocating water resources efficiently to both maintain the forest and facilitate agricultural and recreational use.

In the future, appropriate fire management and the evolving view towards wildfire control and its’ role on the health of the environment will allow the Blue Mountains to maintain a healthy balance of land utility and healthy pine forest growth cycles. The continued management of logging operations at sustainable levels and close monitoring of cattle grazing practices will further allow the healthy balance of land use and ecoregion health to be maintained. The Blue Mountains’ location in the Pacific Northwest allows sustainability efforts to leverage the tourist traffic through the area as a means by which to raise awareness of the region’s ongoing sustainability efforts and to promote the health of the region.

All data and images sourced from www.epa.gov, USGS/EPA publication Thorson, T.D., Bryce, S.A., Lammers, D.A., Woods, A.J., Omernik, J.M., Kagan, J., Pater, D.E., and Comstock, J.A., 2003. Ecoregions of Oregon (color poster with map, descriptive text, summary tables, and photographs): Reston, Virginia, U.S. Geological Survey (map scale 1:1,500,000)