Shrub-steppe

Posted on By

Overview of Shrub-Steppe

  1. Watch this 2020-released 12-minute film “This Land Is Part of Us,” about Washington’s diverse and beautiful shrub-steppe habitat, produced by WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and Conservation Northwest.  It includes  drone video footage of an array of wildlife, plants, habitats, and geology.  Suitable for all ages.  
  2. What’s in a Name: Why Our Region Has So Many Names for Plant Communities by Susan Ballinger.
  3. Washington Wildlife by Woodland Park Zoo, Steppe habitats (pg.1-10) and Use this as general background reading, providing a big picture overview for the course. Hardcopy in the Class Loaner Box
  4. Eastside WA Plant Communities classification by Susan Ballinger. Six different field guide authors describe Eastern Washington’s plant communities from a variety of perspectives using slightly different  vocabulary, which are summarized in this single-page table.
  5. Common Shrub-steppe Species 1-page Background Information Cards for 30 different plants and animals. Pacific NW National Laboratory
  6. What About Shrub-steppe? Resource Card Background Information, Pacific NW National Laboratory.
  7. The Sagebush Sea PBS film, a 3-year collaboration project with Cornell Lab. View the entire film
  8. Observing the Methow’s Shrub-steppe, by Dana Visilli. A 2-page summary table of key components of shrub-steppe habitats, with interesting examples.
  9. Shrub-Steppe Plant Adaptations – newspaper article by Susan Ballinger.

Presentations

The Shrub-steppe Ecosystem with Susan Ballinger.  This 8.5 minute video introduces the sagebrush grasslands in the Wenatchee Foothills. A Spanish-language version with Elisa Lopez  is here.

Common shrub-steppe shrubs.  Photo field guide with key identification characteristics

Plants of the shrub-steppe – An introduction to plant ecology of the Washington’s shrub-steppe

Resources

  1. Why Care About America’s Sagebrush? A Fact sheet published by the USFWS.
  2. Taking the Pulse of our National Parks: Sagebrush Steppe Vital Signs.  National Park Service.  00:08:41.
  3. Shrub-Steppe: Washington’s Disappearing Sea by Joe Rocchio. This is a well-written blog overview of the shrub-steppe ecosystem, with some good photographs. 
  4. Conserve our Western Roots– SageGrouse Initiative