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Grayback Glade Research Natural Area

Medford District , BLM

Klamath Mountains Ecoregion

Cell(s):

  • White fir at high elevations (white fir-red fir/Sadler oak or vanilla leaf or prince's-pine-threeleaf anemone and white fir/beargrass associations)
  • High elevation alder glade
Grayback Glade Research Natural Area

Access by gravel roads and a hiking trail

The 433 ha Grayback Glades RNA lies at the crest of the Siskiyou Mountains in Josephine County, 26 airline km east of Cave Junction, Oregon. The elevation ranges from 1,100 to 2,012 m, rising steeply on the north face of Big Sugarloaf Peak. Summers are warm and dry; winters, cool and moist. Annual precipitation, which comes as both rain and snow, averages 127 cm. Soils, mostly shallow and of low productivity, formed over a complex mix of metamorphic rock. Crannler, Bigelow, Rogue and Goodwin soil series are present, along with unnamed cryaquepts. Drainages support large Port Orford cedar (Cupressus lawsoniana), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), and white fir (Abies concolor) in the canopy and salal (Gaultheria shallon), golden chinquapin (Chrysolepis chrysophylla), Oregon grape (Berberis nervosa), and red huckleberry (Vaccinium parviflorum) in the understory. There is no evidence of Port Orford cedar root rot (Phytophthora lateralis). Upper slopes and ridges are dominated by white and Douglas fir with Sadler oak (Quercus sadleriana). Some sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) grows at lower elevations. The understory in the ridge forests are dominated by Oregon grape and vanilla leaf (Achlys triphylla) with some vine maple (Acer circinatum) and golden chinquapin. Shasta red fir (Abies magnifica var. shastensis) with some white fir dominates at the highest elevations. In the talus slopes, the area known as Grayback Glades is covered by dense stands of Sitka alder (Alnus sitchensis) and vine maple along with many herbaceous species. Fire scars on cedar trees in Right Hand Fork indicate a history of wildfire.
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