The Klamath Mountains are a rugged and lightly-populated mountain range in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the western United States. As a mountain system within both the greater Pacific Coast Ranges and the California Coast Ranges, the Klamath Mountains have a varied geology, with substantial areas of serpentinite and marble, and a climate characterized by moderately cold winters with very heavy snowfall and warm, very dry summers with limited rainfall, especially in the south.[2][3] As a consequence of the geology and soil types, the mountains harbor several endemic or near-endemic trees, forming one of the largest collections of conifers in the world. The mountains are also home to a diverse array of fish and animal species, including black bears, large cats, owls, eagles, and several species of Pacific salmon. Millions of acres in the mountains are managed by the United States Forest Service.[3][4] The northernmost and largest sub-range of the Klamath Mountains are the Siskiyou Mountains.[1]
There are extensive hiking trail systems, recreation areas, and campgrounds both primitive and developed in the Klamaths. A 211-mile (340 km) stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) passes through these mountains as well. This section of the PCT is known locally as "The Big Bend" and is the transition from the California Floristic Province to the Cascades.
Subsequent lava flows from active volcanoes in the Cascade Range and the erosion of the Oregon Coast Range to the north partially covered these rocks with basalt and sediments.[12]
As a consequence of the geology, the mountains harbor rich biodiversity, with several distinct plant communities, including temperate rain forests, moist inland forests, oak forests and savannas, high elevation forests, and alpine grasslands. These communities form the Klamath Mountains ecoregion. One of the principal plant communities in the Klamath Mountains is Mediterranean California Lower Montane Black Oak-Conifer Forest.[17]
The ecoregion includes several endemic or near-endemic species, such as Port Orford cedar or Lawson's cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana spp. balfouriana), and Brewer's spruce (Picea breweriana), forming one of the largest collections of different conifers in the world. The flowering plant Kalmiopsis leachiana, also endemic to the Klamaths, is limited to the Siskiyou sub-range in Oregon.[4][18]
Conifers
A large concentration of diverse coniferous species of trees exists in these mountains.[19] Thirty conifer species (or more, depending on where one delineates the region) inhabit the area, including two endemic species, the Brewer's spruce and the Port Orford cedar, making the Klamath Mountains one of the richest coniferous forest regions of the world in terms of concentrated species diversity. The region also has several edaphic plant communities, adapted to specific soil types, notably serpentine outcrops.[20][21]
In 1969, Drs. John O. Sawyer and Dale Thornburgh discovered 17 species of conifers in 1 square mile (2.6 km2) around Little Duck Lake and Sugar Creek in the Russian Wilderness. They called this diverse area the Miracle Mile.[3][5][22] In 2013 Richard Moore identified an 18th species, western juniper, in the Sugar Creek canyon.[23] This is now considered the richest assemblage of conifers per unit area in any temperate region on Earth.
The area used to be home to grizzly bears, gray wolves, and mule deer. A project to reintroduce Roosevelt elk began in 1985 in the western Marble Mountains, near Elk Creek. Over the next 10 years the number and placement of reintroduced animals was expanded, and now elk can be seen roaming throughout the Marble Mountain Wilderness, Trinity Alps Wilderness, in the northern Siskiyou Mountains, along the South Fork of the Salmon River, and in small numbers near Trinity Lake and Reading Creek.[32]
Some of the most remote areas are prone to rumors of Bigfoot/Sasquatch sightings from time to time, and the legendary creature plays a part in the folk tales of the Native American populations.[33]
Rivers and fish
[edit]Rafters on the Rogue River in the northern Klamath Mountains in southwestern Oregon
The many mountains, streams and rivers form a major spawning ground for several species of trout and salmon; yet recently, in the last 50 years, some of the fish stocks have fallen drastically, particularly salmon stocks. The ecoregion's rivers and streams are home to nine species of native salmonids. The depletions occur mainly because dams and clearcutting on the rugged slopes of the area contribute to large amounts of silt in the stream beds, which in turn interfere with spawning salmon, as they lay their eggs in exposed gravel beds.[34][35] The notable fish species are king, kokanee, and silver salmon, brown, brook, and rainbow trout (including steelhead), cutthroat trout, and crappie, bluegill, catfish, and largemouth and smallmouth bass.[36][37][38]
^Urness, Zach (September 17, 2011). "Happy Camp, Calif., in Klamath River Country, is an Epicenter of Outdoors Recreation". The Oregonian. Portland, OR.
^"Klamath Mountains Ecoregion"(PDF). Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. January 2006. p. 195. Archived from the original(PDF) on April 23, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
Axelrod, Daniel I. (January 1985). Miocene Floras from the Middlegate Basin, West-Central Nevada. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences. Vol. 129. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN9780520096950. OCLC10532850.
Benke, Arthur C., ed., and Cushing, Colbert E., ed.; Stanford, Jack A.; Gregory, Stanley V.; Hauer, Richard F.; Snyder, Eric B. (2005). Rivers of North America. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press. ISBN0-12-088253-1. OCLC59003378.
Kauffmann, Michael (2012). Conifer Country (1st ed.). Kneeland, CA: Backcountry Press. ISBN9780578094168. OCLC798852130.
Sawyer, John O. (2004). "Conifers of the Klamath Mountains". Vegetation Ecology, Proceedings of the second conference on Klamath-Siskiyou ecology. Cave Junction, OR: Siskiyou Field Institute.
Sawyer, John O. (2006). Northwest California: A Natural History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN9780520928367. OCLC76812956.
Skinner, C.N.; Taylor, A.H.; Agee, J.K. (2006). "Klamath Mountains bioregion". In Sugihara, N.G.; van Wagtendonk, J.W.; Fites-Kaufman, J.; Shaffer, K.E; Thode, A.E. (eds.). Fire in California’s Ecosystems. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN9780520932272. OCLC86110764.
White, Mike (2010). Trinity Alps and Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas (5th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Wilderness Press. ISBN9780899975016. OCLC351330287.
