Land Steward
Resource Notebook
3. Southern Oregon Ecology
Understanding Your Land, Garden Guide for the Rogue Valley, JCMGA
This section outlines the unique weather and climate of the Rogue Valley and provides a great chart of the monthly temperature ranges throughout the year.
Woodland Ecology, OSU Publication, MWM
Helpful introduction to understanding how trees grow, how stands develop, and the role of disturbance in a wooded environment. Includes a 1 pager outlining the basics of wood structure and tree growth.
Southwest Oregon Forests: Unique and Challenging. Tom Sensenig, Medford BLM. This three-page chapter from a larger publication provides a concise overview of the ecological basis for current challenges in managing local forests. http://www.pacrimrcd.org/Files/CHAPTER%203.pdf
Forest Conditions and Wildfire: http://www.co.jackson.or.us/Files/Chap4.pdf This chapter from the Jackson County Community Wildfire Protection plan briefly describes historic and contemporary effects of fire and the effects of fire exclusion on local forests and other vegetation types.
Additional Resources
On-line soils data. Soil survey reports are the product of soil scientists, plant specialists, soil engineers and others. Reports contain many kinds of basic information about the soils in the area. This information can be helpful in making decisions about the management of soils for optimum crop production, in planning land uses for urban and suburban areas, and in determining the needs for many other uses, for example, forestry, range, wildlife, and recreation. Maps, reports, and tabular data are available by county. http://www.or.nrcs.usda.gov/pnw_soil/or_data.html
County soil surveys. Available at the Extension office and county library. Includes basic information about soils and maps relevant to land use and conservation.
To learn more about how your property fits into the “big picture:”
Oregon Explorer: http://oregonexplorer.info/ An interactive, on-line mapping site and data archive. Contains a VAST wealth of spatially-based information on topics ranging from wildfire to wildlife habitat. View the site to see recent aerial photo imagery and many different types of maps. Takes some time to learn how to use but a truly excellent way to learn how your property fits into the larger picture.
Oregon Conservation Strategies. http://www.dfw.state.or.us/conservationstrategy/
The Oregon Conservation Strategy provides a blueprint and action plan for the long-term conservation of Oregon’s native fish and wildlife and their habitats through a non-regulatory, statewide approach to conservation. The Conservation Strategies Explorer is an interactive, on-line mapping tool that allows you to see where priority conservation areas are located. http://nrimp.dfw.state.or.us/coaexplorer/viewer.htm
Watershed Profiles: http://www.or.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/watershed-resources.html These provide description of the sub-basins’ physical resources, soils, stream, and precipitation data, resource concerns, census and social data, and other useful info. Somewhat technical but a valuable resource.
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