The 16 ha Butte RNA lies atop a small basalt ridge at the west edge of the Willamette Valley in the Coast Range, 13 km due west of McMinnville in Yamhill County, Oregon. Marine air dominates the climate, with annual rainfall of 127 cm. Summers are warm and dry; winters, cool and wet. The Butte is broad and gently sloping at the top, but drops off sharply down to the toe slope, except at the north end, which has a gentler slope. Elevations range from 300 to 410 m. Large Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) are concentrated on the ridge top and west slope. In some areas the Douglas fir forest is obviously two-aged. Understory plant communities vary with aspect and slope position. Vine maple (Acer circinatum), oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor), dwarf Oregon grape (Berberis nervosa), salal (Gaultheria shallon), swordfern (Polystichum munitum), and poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) grow in different areas. Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana)/grass savanna grows on the north end of the ridge and along the edges of the ridge where the slope begins to steepen. The RNA harbors tall bugbane (Cimicifuga elata), a special status species. Soil series are represented by Melby, Olyic and Jory. Wild fires have occurred periodically, but were likely more frequent in the 1800s, when started by Native Americans, before European settlement. At that time there may have been less Douglas fir and more Oregon white oak. Many of the large Douglas fir trees have fire scars. Kareen Sturgeon (Linfield College, 1989, 1992) compared old growth and young trees and studied edge effects on floral plant communities.

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