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“In
all the miles of stage travel which our pioneering covered, there
was none more uncomfortable and disagreeable than through the
desert lands and lava beds of southern Idaho . . ..
The alkali poured into the nostrils and throat with every
breath; it made the
skin sore and rough, the eyes sore, and even irritated the
disposition.”
From
the journal of Carrie Strahorn (Strahorn 1911:174-175)
Establishment
of the National Reactor Testing Station on the sagebrush desert of
the upper Snake River Plain in 1949 had an unforeseen public
benefit: the
protection of a rich natural flora and fauna, a reservoir of the
genetic diversity of sagebrush steppe ecosystems.
About 40% of the 2,300 km2 area that is now
known as the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory (INEEL) has not been grazed by livestock for the past
45 years. This is the
largest of the few protected reserves within the sagebrush steppe,
which is the most extensive semi-desert vegetation type of the
Intermountain West, covering some 450,000 km2 (West
1988). Recognition of
the importance of the INEEL as a field laboratory for ecological
research resulted in its designation in 1975 as a National
Environmental Research Park.
The purpose of this publication is to document the
floristic diversity of the INEEL, describe its abiotic environment
and most common plant communities, and discuss the ethnoecology of
the area.
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