Starkey Experimental Forest and Range: streams

The Starkey Experimental Forest and Range (EFR) is located 28 miles southwest of La Grande in northeast Oregon. This unique research facility includes ungulate-proof fencing enclosing 40 square miles, as well as interior fencing, to provide control of herbivory effects and the abundance and distribution of large herbivores (cattle, mule deer, and elk). The Starkey Project is a multi-year research effort starting in 1989 to measure the population responses of deer and elk within the EFR to various forest and rangeland management practices commonly applied on public lands. This data publication contains a vector-based line file which includes all of the streams documented within the Starkey EFR from 1989 through 2017, as sourced from the high resolution National Hydrography Dataset. Attributes indicate seasonal variability in the availability of the streams.
The locations of water sources are important when evaluating resource selection of large ungulates such as cattle, elk, and mule deer. These data allow the user to see the stream resources available to ungulates within the Starkey EFR throughout the year. The data have been hydrographically categorized by both the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the Starkey Ungulate Ecology Team (SUET; a research team within the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station) to indicate which streams are perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral.