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Columbia Plateau
(Area - 32,688,600 ha)

Executive Summary


Columbia PlateauDescription - This is an arid sagebrush steppe and grassland surrounded on the north, west, and east by moister, predominantly forested, mountainous ecological regions. It is an oddly shaped physiographic area that covers portions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and a small piece of northeast California. It consists of arid tablelands, intermontane basins, dissected lava plains, and widely scattered low mountains. There is a more subtle transition to the Basin and Range to the south in which hotter lowlands are dissected by isolated mountain ranges.
Priority Bird Populations and Habitats
Shrubsteppe
PIF Swainson's Hawk
PIF Prairie Falcon Highest percent population of any physiographic area.
PIF Greater Sage-Grouse
PIF California Quail
PIF Long-billed Curlew 
PIF Black-chinned Hummingbird
PIF Gray Flycatcher
PIF Sage Thrasher
PIF Virginia's Warbler
PIF Brewer's Sparrow
PIF Sage Sparrow

Wetlands/grasslands
PIF Western Grebe
PIF Trumpeter Swan
PIF Sandhill Crane
PIF Franklin's Gull
PIF Tricolored Blackbird

Coniferous Forest
PIF Mountain Quail
PIF Flammulated Owl 
PIF Black Swift
PIF Calliope Hummingbird
PIF Lewis's Woodpecker 
PIF Williamson's Sapsucker
PIF White-headed Woodpecker
PIF Black-backed Woodpecker
PIF Hermit Warbler

Complete Physiographic Area Priority Scores (Zipped, Dbase5 file 288K)
Key to Abbreviations: AI-Area Importance, PT-Population Trend, TB-Threats to Breeding. Priority Setting Process: General / Detailed


Conservation recommendations and needs - Issues in this area include conversion of shrubsteppe and wetlands to agriculture, grazing, and some urban development. Non-native plant invasions have been particularly damaging here, led by aggressive species such as cheatgrass and crested wheatgrass. As elsewhere, fire suppression and other practices have greatly reduced the extent and health of open ponderosa pine habitat. Restoration of a dry, open, multi-aged ponderosa pine system will require careful silviculture and a regimen of prescribed fire. Within the shrubsteppe system, it is important to maintain and restore a dynamic sagebrush ecosystem, including no further net loss of healthy sagebrush, and restoration of fragmented and degraded areas. Existing wetlands should be protected, and water regimes restored. The health and complexity of riparian shrub and forest vegetation has been extensively degraded due in part to livestock grazing and lowering of water tables. However, restoration activities have been shown to produce relatively good results.
 
Physiographic Area Map
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Please send comments to:
Carol Beardmore, PIF Western Regional Coordinator
cbeardmore@gf.state.az.us