Cache Mountain RNA

Cache Mountain Research Natural Area (RNA) was established to represent mid-elevation lakes and mixed-coniferous forest on the eastern slopes of the Oregon Cascades. The RNA includes four lakes (Cache Lake, Noname Lake, Four O’ Clock Lake, and Hortense Lake) a large sedge marsh, Englemann spruce bottomlands, swales, springs, seeps, boulder fields, rock gardens, and old growth forests. The terrain within the RNA includes gently sloping plains of glacial outwash and hills that rise over the outwash plains. Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) are the dominant tree species while alpine collomia (Collomia debilis), gland oceanspray (Holodiscus dumosus), Davidson's penstemon (Penstemon davidsonii), snowberry (Symphorocarpus albus), grouse huckleberry (Vaccinium scoparium), snowbrush (Ceanothus velutinus), mazanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), sedge (Carex spp.), and brakenfern (Pteridium aquilinum) are the dominant understory plants.  A large portion of the RNA burned after lightening struck Cache Mountain and started a wildfire on on July 23, 2002.