Castlehead

Castlehead Site

Location: Owyhee County, ID, ~60 miles from Jordan Valley, OR
Land Management Agency: Bureau of Land Management Owyhee Field Office
SageSTEP Site Manager: Scott Shaff
Plots: Three 35 to 60-acre core plots (Control, Burn, Mechanical) and two extensive plots (2545-acre control and 3200-acre burn)
Elevation: 5000-6200 ft
Topography: 5-8% slopes, SE aspect (burn and mechanical plots), W aspect (control plot)
Common Vegetation: Western Juniper, mountain big sagebrush, low sagebrush, Idaho fescue, Sandberg bluegrass
Soils: Fine loamy, mixed
Fire Regime: Historically frequent to moderately frequent (10-70 years), low intensity to mixed severity fires. Woodland invasion suggests that the majority of these communities have not burned since the late 1800’s. As woodlands gain dominance, the fire regime shifts to infrequent, high-intensity fires.
Representative Land Base: Several million acres in eastern OR, northeastern CA, southwestern ID, and northwestern NV
Grazing: Plots are located on an active grazing allotment.
Treatment Schedule: This site was partially burned by wildfire in summer 2007, and thus was removed as a main SageSTEP site. However, hydrology work was performed at Castlehead in 2007 and 2008.

Updated 2009

Contact

Lisa Ellsworth
Project Co-coordinator
Dpt. Fisheries & Wildlife
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR  97330
Email
(541) 737-0008

Beth Newingham
Project Co-coordinator
GB Rangelands Research
USDA Ag. Res. Service
Reno, NV 89512
Email
(775) 784-6057 ext. 233

Lael Gilbert
Outreach Coordinator
Utah State University
5215 Old Main Hill
Logan, Utah 84322-5215
Email
(435) 797-8455

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