The Arid Land Ecology Reserve (ALE) is the largest tract of shrub-steppe ecosystem remaining in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. It is managed for the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...

by the

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of the United States Department of Energy national laboratories, managed by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. The main campus of the laboratory is in Richland, Washington. O ...

(which is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by

Battelle Memorial Institute Battelle Memorial Institute (more widely known as simply Battelle) is a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Battelle is a charitable trust organized as a nonprofit corporation u ...

). The 320 km² area is a portion of the 1500 km² National Environmental Research Park located on the

Hanford Site The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW a ...

on the northwest boundary of

Richland, Washington Richland () is a city in Benton County, Washington, United States. It is located in southeastern Washington at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 60,560. Along with the nearby c ...

. On June 27, 2000, a range fire destroyed most of the native

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

and

bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

as well as damaged the microbiotic crust. Though the US Fish and Wildlife Service has attempted to re-introduce native flora, the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve is currently dominated by non-native species such as

cheatgrass ''Bromus tectorum'', known as downy brome, drooping brome or cheatgrass, is a winter annual grass native to Europe, southwestern Asia, and northern Africa, but has become invasive in many other areas. It now is present in most of Europe, southe ...

knapweeds ''Centaurea'' () is a genus of over 700 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding reg ...

, and Russian thistle (

tumbleweed A tumbleweed is a structural part of the above-ground anatomy of a number of species of plants. It is a diaspore that, once mature and dry, detaches from its root or stem and rolls due to the force of the wind. In most such species, the tumble ...

) which flourished after the 2000 fire. Other species such as spiny hop sage and

Wyoming big sagebrush ''Artemisia tridentata'', commonly called big sagebrush,MacKay, Pam (2013), ''Mojave Desert Wildflowers'', 2nd ed., , p. 264. Great Basin sagebrush or (locally) simply sagebrush, is an aromatic shrub from the family Asteraceae, which grows in ar ...

were decimated by the fire and in its aftermath.

Vegetation

Shrub-steppe

This vegetation type describes plant communities found in and around arid mountains, ridges and slopes. In the ALE this includes shrubs (sagebrush and rabbit brush), perennial bunchgrasses (Sandberg's blue grass and bluebunch wheat grass) as well as both annual and perennial forbs (balsamroot, phlox and fleabane).

Riparian

This vegetation type refers to plant communities located around springs and streamflow. In the ALE these areas are dominated by willow, black cottonwood, chokecherry, and mock Orange.

Point of Interest

North facing slope of Rattlesnake Mountain is the highest “treeless” mountain in the United States. Rare plant species such as Mountain Milk Vetch and Piper's daisy can be found in this area.

History and Significant Dates

From the early 1800s to around the 1940s this area was used as animal pasture, human homesteading, oil drilling and development of infrastructure such as roads. In 1943 the United States Department of Energy (DOE) gained ownership of the land. The ALE was then established in 1967 with the intended purpose of plant conservation. It gained natural area research designation in 1971 and later national environmental research park status in 1975. Currently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have handled land management through permits with the DOE, while the DOE maintain administrative powers over the land and any associated roads, this has been in effect since 1997. Finally, in 2000 it was amalgamated into the Hanford Reach National Monument.

References