White Mountains (California) - Ecology

Ecology

Ecologically, the White Mountains are like the other ranges in the Basin and Range Province; they are dry, but the upper slopes from 9,200 to 11,500 ft (2,800 to 3,500 m) hold open subalpine forests of Great Basin Bristlecone Pine on permeable dolomite and certain granite substrates and Limber pine on less permeable rocky substrates. Middle slopes from 6,500 to 8,200 ft (2,000 to 2,500 m) have somewhat denser stands of Piñon pine and Utah juniper. These upper and lower conifer zones are often separated by a zone of Mountain-mahogany brush. Various subspecies of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) extend from surrounding valleys to the lower alpine zone

A bristlecone pine in the southern part of the range is the oldest known living tree in the world, about 4,700 years old, nicknamed Methuselah after the biblical figure who is said to have lived 969 years. Pine nuts from Piñon pine stands were harvested as a winter staple food by Paiute Indians whose descendants still live in adjacent valleys.

The White Mountains also have small remnant groves of Lodgepole pine, Jeffrey pine, Ponderosa pine, Sierra juniper and Aspen including an unusual dwarf variety. These species are common in the nearby and wetter Sierra Nevada range west of the Owens Valley and must have been more widespread in the White Mountains until Holocene droughts extirpated them in most of this drier range. A number of plant species are endemic to the White Mountains, including the White Mountains horkelia, Horkelia hispidula.

Fauna include two herds of Bighorn Sheep, mule deer, marmots and feral horses. Permanent streams have no native fish, but there are naturalized populations of trout including rare Paiute cutthroat trout which is protected from angling. Birds include Clark's Nutcracker and other Nutcracker Corvidae which eat and cache pine nuts.