High desert (Oregon)

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Coordinates: 43 ° 18 ′ 57.8 "  N , 118 ° 47 ′ 3"  W.

The high desert of Oregon near Frenchglen , Harney County
Expansion of the high desert of Oregon

A region located in the southeastern part of Oregon is referred to as the high desert of Oregon (English Oregon High Desert , in the 19th century mostly Great Sandy Desert ) . With an average annual rainfall of 380 mm, this part of Oregon has a drier climate than the west of the state, but its vegetation is more like a steppe or a bushland than a desert . The region is on average 1,200 meters above sea level and extends over the counties of Crook , Deschutes , Harney , Lake and Malheur .

Morphologically, it is the northwesternmost part of the Great Basin . The terrain structure is mostly flat, with individual eyrie and ditch elements. These form large pools , the largest of which is Malheur Lake .

Until the middle of the 19th century, the high desert of Oregon was populated only by the Northern Paiute . In the 1850s and 1860s, white settlers began crossing the Cascade Range from the west and settling in the high desert. In 1866, Camp Warner , a United States Army outpost, was established. The first town in the region was Prineville in Crook County, founded in 1871 . Together with Lakeview , Burns and Bend , Prineville is one of the largest cities in the high desert today.

Large parts of the high desert are administered by the Bureau of Land Management , an agency subordinate to the US Department of the Interior . Most of the governmental and privately owned land is used for ranching . Due to the dry climate, the cultivation of crops is mostly only possible through irrigation; it is dominated by the cultivation of forage such as alfalfa and hay .

Typical mammals of the high desert of Oregon are the pronghorn , the coyote , the mule deer , the donkey hare and the puma . Typical birds of the region are the mugwort , the crested quail , the mountain mocking thrush and the prairie falcon . The most common plants in the region are the American juniper , the sagebrush and the woolly wool leaf .

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