Mapping and Assessment of Mounded Vernal Pool Habitat in the Rogue River Valley of Southwest Oregon

The Rogue River Valley of southwestern Oregon hosts a unique and beautiful complex of vernal pool and ephemeral wetland habitats associated with low-permeability soils and mounded landform topography (Johnson 1993; USFWS 2012; Perchemlides et al. 2020). These mounded vernal wetlands occur across grassland, oak, and shrub vegetation types and provide essential habitat for native plants and animals, including specialized rare, endemic, and federally listed species. Land use practices from the 1800’s through present have caused widespread loss and degradation of these habitats through development, agriculture, fragmentation, topographic and hydrologic alterations, fire exclusion, and the spread of invasive weeds (USFWS 2012; Perchemlides et al. 2020). We estimate that less than 25% of the historic mounded vernal wetlands in the Rogue Valley remain as functional habitat, and none have escaped substantial impacts to hydrology, native plant communities, or ecosystem processes.

(This report was created by Keith Perchemlides, Groundtruth Ecological, and Cam Patterson, CC Patterson & Associates for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.)