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Oregon Mule Deer Klamath Basin Winter Ranges

Metadata Updated: July 20, 2024

The Klamath Basin mule deer herd contains an estimated 10,775 deer and features a mix of resident and migratory animals. Most winter ranges are adjacent to the California border near Bly and Lost River, California, in areas featuring western juniper, low shrublands, and early shrub-tree habitat. In spring, these mule deer either migrate northwest to regional national forest lands or northeast past South Fork Sprague River. Summer ranges contain ponderosa pine, mixed-conifer, and early shrub-tree habitat along with alfalfa and other agricultural crops. Notably, one mule deer migrated southeast into California near Goose Lake in May 2019 and spent a year near Deadhorse Reservoir before returning to Oregon in November 2020. Out of four mule deer outfitted with GPS collars during a separate capturing event, one migrates from Lake Albert to Lakeview, Oregon along U.S. Route 395 in spring. This stretch of U.S. Route 395 experienced an average annual daily traffic (AADT) value of 1,002 vehicles in 2018. Several other mule deer also cross sections of U.S. Highway 97, an even busier road that had an AADT value of 5,298 vehicles in 2018. From 2010 to 2022, ODOT recorded an average 65.7 mule deer-vehicle collisions per year along a 44.8 mi (72.1 km) section of U.S. Highway 97 north of Klamath Falls. Klamath Basin mule deer numbers are slowly declining, in part due to reduced summer forage quality (Peek and others, 2002). Forest fire suppression beginning in the 1920s increased canopy closure in the summer range, reducing preferred understory vegetation such as Purshia tridentata (antelope bitterbrush) and Ceanothus velutinus (snowbrush ceanothus). Without sufficient high-quality forage during drought years, mule deer become more reliant on agricultural fields near Klamath Falls as a dependable water source. Canopy closure also contributed to the severity of the 2021 Bootleg Fire, the third largest recorded fire in Oregon, which burned 413,765 acres (167,445 ha) north of Sprague River. These mapping layers show the location of the winter ranges for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in the Klamath Basin population in Oregon. They were developed from 44 migration sequences collected from a sample size of 27 animals comprising GPS locations collected every 5−13 hours.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date July 20, 2024
Metadata Updated Date July 20, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 20, 2024
Metadata Updated Date July 20, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/d87b120ba090dd666da4fd9e8176549d
Identifier USGS:6584b545d34eff134d42da0a
Data Last Modified 20240410
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 57e4b29f-1ae8-4a0f-a41a-bfed57b4c7b6
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -121.8455,41.4569,-119.9729,42.5714
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 972b19889b0414afd964728c9946bd61c8c0341c5968f8b05fef9e906483b7d2
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -121.8455, 41.4569, -121.8455, 42.5714, -119.9729, 42.5714, -119.9729, 41.4569, -121.8455, 41.4569}

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