U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

icon-dot-gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

icon-https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Spatial Extent of Data

ISO 19115 Topic Category

Place Keywords

Oregon Mule Deer Steens Mountain Winter Ranges

The Steens Mountain mule deer herd contains an estimated 3,710 individuals (ODFW 2023). Most GPS-collared mule deer are either nonmigratory or use an elevational migration route along the Steens Mountain fault block. Winter ranges for the Steens Mountain mule deer herd surround Steens Mountain at lower elevations. These winter range habitats are diverse, primarily consisting of sagebrush and early shrub-tree habitat with encroaching western juniper and previously burned, native, and invasive annual grasslands. Migratory mule deer summer at higher elevations on Steens Mountain in habitats featuring quaking aspen, mountain big sagebrush, mountain shrub, early shrub-tree, western juniper, and post-fire native grassland communities. Mule deer can compete with feral horses during drought years because seasonal ranges and migration corridors overlap four HMAs. The combined Kiger, Riddle Mountain, and Sheepshead-Heath Creek HMAs encompass more than 265,000 acres (107,000 ha) and respectively contain 183 horses, 165 horses, and 224 horses in comparison to the maximum AMLs of 82 horses, 56 horses, and 302 horses (BLM, 2023b). To the south, the 280,715-acre (113,601-ha) South Steens HMA contains 606 horses, nearly double the maximum AML of 304 feral horses. To help improve mule deer populations, the Steens Mountain WMU, which incorporates most of the Steens Mountain mule deer herd, was included in the 2015 Mule Deer Initiative (ODFW, 2020). Since 2015, ODFW, BLM, and NRCS SGI have removed 4,897 acres (1,982 ha) of western juniper and reseeded 35,121 acres (14,213 ha) for native shrubs and grasses along with completing other habitat enhancement projects. The 170,200-acre (68,877-ha) Steens Mountain Wilderness in the central and eastern portion of the herd’s range is also closed to motorized vehicles and cattle grazing throughout the year. These mapping layers show the location of the winter ranges for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Steens Mountain population in Oregon. They were developed from 56 winter sequences collected from a sample size of 19 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 5-13 hours.

Get Data and Metadata
Author(s) Matthew J Kauffman orcid, Blake H Lowrey orcid, Jennifer L McKee orcid, Travis Allen, Chloe Beaupre orcid, Jeffrey Beck orcid, Scott Bergen, Justin Binfet, Shelly Blair, James W Cain orcid, Peyton Carl, Todd Cornish orcid, Michelle Cowardin, Rachel Curtis, Melia DeVivo, Jennifer Diamond, Katie Dugger orcid, Orrin Duvuvuei, C.J. Ellingwood, Darby Finley, Jessica Fort, Eric Freeman, Ian Freeman, Jeff Gagnon, Emily Gelzer orcid, Jacob Gray, Evan Greenspan orcid, Curtis Hendricks, Valerie Hinojoza-Rood, Matt Jeffress, Carolyn Kyle, Zack Lockyer, Cody McKee, Jerod Merkle orcid, Jerrod Merrell, Matt Mumma, Jake Powell, Craig Reddell, Adele Reinking orcid, Robert Ritson, Sierra Robatcek, Benjamin Robb orcid, Brianna Russo orcid, Hall Sawyer orcid, Cody Schroeder, Elissa Slezak, Scott Sprague, Erik Steiner orcid, Alethea Steingisser, Tom Stephenson, Nicole Tatman, Kaitlyn Taylor, Don Whittaker, Travis Zaffarano
Publication Date 2025-02-06
Beginning Date of Data 2018
Ending Date of Data 2023
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P1YJCCQA
Citation Kauffman, M.J., Lowrey, B.H., McKee, J.L., Allen, T., Beaupre, C., Beck, J., Bergen, S., Binfet, J., Blair, S., Cain, J.W., Carl, P., Cornish, T., Cowardin, M., Curtis, R., DeVivo, M., Diamond, J., Dugger, K., Duvuvuei, O., Ellingwood, C., Finley, D., Fort, J., Freeman, E., Freeman, I., Gagnon, J., Gelzer, E., Gray, J., Greenspan, E., Hendricks, C., Hinojoza-Rood, V., Jeffress, M., Kyle, C., Lockyer, Z., McKee, C., Merkle, J., Merrell, J., Mumma, M., Powell, J., Reddell, C., Reinking, A., Ritson, R., Robatcek, S., Robb, B., Russo, B., Sawyer, H., Schroeder, C., Slezak, E., Sprague, S., Steiner, E., Steingisser, A., Stephenson, T., Tatman, N., Taylor, K., Whittaker, D., and Zaffarano, T., 2025, Oregon Mule Deer Steens Mountain Winter Ranges: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P1YJCCQA.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2025-02-06
Related Publication
Citations of these data

Loading https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20245111

Access public
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Loading...
Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2025-02-07T05:07:48.543Z